Amalgamations
by abyss1826
Summary: (slight AU where Kid has a mother.) It's tuesday, a week since Asura was defeated, and Kid has gone missing. While the Thompsons, Soul, Maka, Tsubaki and BlackStar are on campus looking for him, they come across a new student who calls themselves Akira. What happens when Maka finds out that they aren't even on any of the rosters? (Explores other Gods and new characters.)
1. Chapter 1

On a normal tuesday morning Liz and Patty would wake up to find Kid already awake and eating breakfast, dressed and showered and essentially ready to leave for school. Why the hell Kid was not in the house, and why he left his room a mess _and_ his phone on the nightstand this tuesday morning, the sisters had no idea. Kid does not stray from routine. He just doesn't.

And no one's seen him either. Not even Lord Death, who almost always knows where his son is, which is why Liz, Patty, Soul, Maka, Black Star, and Tsubaki are walking around the balconies of the second school floor before school starts.

"Maybe he'll show up for class," Maka suggested after half an hour of no one seeing him.

"Maybe who will will show up for class?"

Everyone jumped and looked up to see a lanky figure sitting in the corner of a third floor windowsill with their back leaning against the frame and one leg dangling in the air.

"Who's asking?" Black Star challenged.

"No one of consequence ," the person replied, "I was just making conversation. That is what new students are supposed to do, right?"

They sounded more sarcastic than actually questioning.

"New student huh?" Black Star grinned.

"I don't remember hearing anything about a new student..." Tsubaki warned, but he wasn't listening.

The clouds moved to uncover the sun, and the person in the window now had far less shade to hide in.

They wore black jeans with a black top that had lace half sleeves, and some sort of combat style boots. Their hair went to the nape of their neck, and was parted to the side with the bangs held back by white bobby pins. Their eyes glittered with two shades of gold.

"What are you doing here so early before class?" Soul asked, yawning.

"The same thing should be asked of you."

"We're looking for Death the Kid."

"Well that's a weird name to give a child." The person remarked.

"Well what's your name then?" Blackstar asked.

"Akira."

"What are you?"

"A weapon."

"What kind?"

"Depends."

The three pairs looked at the person on the window ledge in surprise.

"What do you mean 'depends'?" Soul asked.

"I'm a multi-form."

"Does this run in your family?" asked Tsubaki, who was probably the most surprised out of the six of them.

"I don't know, maybe."

"What do you mean, maybe?"

Akira shrugged and jumped down from the ledge.

"Anyway, nice meeting you guys, good luck finding your friend," they called over their shoulder, waving casually as they walked away.

"Hey! Wait!" BlackStar yelled, running after them after they rounded the corner, "You didn't answer Tsubaki's question!"

When he got to the corridor, Akira was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

"So where do you think he is?" Soul asked Maka when he saw her at breakfast the next morning. "I mean we've looked everywhere! If Lord Death didn't raise the alarm after Liz and Patty went to him he may have just been sent on some secret mission but this is different."

She looked down at her eggs.

"I asked about Akira, the new student we met."

"And?"

"She isn't listed. There aren't any students by that name or any that look like her." She stabbed some eggs onto her fork and ate them.

"So, two missing friends and a stranger on campus. This place will never stop will it?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Good morning everyone, I'd like to introduce to you a new student here to the crescent class." Said professor Stein the next day, sounding rather bored. "This is Akira."

Akira stood in the front of the

class. They wore dark skinny jeans, sneakers, and a red dress shirt. The sleeves were folded up above the elbows, and two front buttons were undone, showing a silver chain disappearing under the fabric. Their bangs were held back by a small white bow.

"Hi."

When everyone continued to just stare at them they shifted their weight to their left foot and looked at Professor Stein, who shrugged and told them to go take a seat. They quietly walk to the empty seat to Souls right, and sat down.

"Would you like to tell the class about yourself Akira?" Stein asked, sort of as an afterthought, as he straightened the papers on his desk.

"Uh, well, I'm a multiform weapon, but I don't have a Meister, and I can project my soul wavelength to harm enemies." They paused. "My favorite color is yellow."

When the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence they looked down at their desk in embarrassment.

"Okay, well thank you for that Akira, now if you all could turn to the chapter on Spiritual Dimensions in your textbooks-"

Class had begun.


	4. Chapter 4

"Can I sit next to you?" Akira asked Liz during lunch.

"Sure." She sat with Patty, Maka, Soul, Tsubaki and BlackStar.

"Are you really gonna eat all that?" BackStar asked, marveling at the two cups of ramen, bowl of fruit salad, tuna sandwich, and plate of sushi that were piled on Akira's tray.

"Yes." They said defensively.

"Did you forget to eat breakfast?" Tsubaki asked, concerned.

"No." Akira mumbled, popping a sushi roll into their mouth.

"So, are you liking your first day in the E.A.T. class?" Maka asked, sipping her tea.

"Yeah, we have Battle Arts next, right?"

"Mhm. Are you sure you'll be able to participate? Normally we combat each other in that class, you might get hurt by yourself without a meister."

"I'm sure I'll be fine."

"So what weapons can you turn into?" BlackStar asked excitedly.

"Well, I use Chain Whip most often, but I can also be a scythe pretty easily. I can also be a pair of gauntlets, and a laser pointer."

"A laser pointer?" Maka, Soul, Liz and BlackStar all asked in unison.

"It can be advantageous to seer out the enemies eyes during battle if you can get them to hold still, or if you need information." They remarked casually as they opened the first tub of ramen, having finished the sushi.

Everyone stared at them, wide eyed.

"What?"

"In what situation have you been in where that kind of thing was necessary?" Liz asked.

"A particularly nasty person broke out of their jail and I had to find out where they went from one of the individuals who helped them escape."

The sandwich was now gone.

"Was that before you came here?"

"Mhhm. They were going to be executed anyway, it's not like they were in agony all that long."

"What kind of place did you come from?" Soul asked in shock.

"A large city." they replied vaguely.

"So is that how you got put into the E.A.T. class or something then?"

"Lord Death knew my dad or something, I don't know much about the connection."

"Huh. What's his name? Maybe he was a Death Scythe." Maka said thoughtfully.

"I don't know."

"You don't know your own father's name?"

"I lived in an orphanage for a while until he claimed me and sent me here."

The fruit salad had been consumed.

"Why would he do something like that?" Asked Patty, who had, until now, been assembling her lunch into a picture of a giraffe, which she now destroyed and had begun to eat.

"Hell if I know." Akira had begun the second package of Ramen.

"Maybe you can ask about him." she suggested.

"Maybe."

The bell signaling the end of lunch period rang, and everyone cleaned up to get to Battle Arts out in the courtyard.

"Looking forward to watching how you fight Akira," BlackStar said, batting them on the shoulder as he walked past.

"Well I hope I don't disappoint then."


	5. Chapter 5

"Now today since I'm the only one available to supervise we can't have more than one dual going on at a time." Said professor Stein, draped across the back of the chair he rolled into the second campus outside. "Maka and Soul, dual Akira. The rest of us will watch."

"Are you sure?" Tsubaki interjected, "Professor, Akira doesn't have a Meister, it may not be-"

"Hush" Stein interrupted, "I'm sure Akira will be just fine." He grinned and rested his chin on his arms, which braced the back of the chair. "You three can start now."

Maka and Soul took one end of the clearing, and Akira took the other. Soul transformed, and Akira's right arm became a silver metal chain with a triangular blade on the end. Before Maka could make the first move, they had jumped three feet straight into the air, and shot the chain at her left ankle. She deflected it easily by twirling Soul and knocking the chain off course, but that was the move Akira wanted her to make. They wrapped Soul's blade like a mummy, flicked the chain up, and sent him soaring through the air behind them where he crashed, swearing, through the trees a few pool lengths away. Maka, now weaponless, tried to deflect the next line of chain by knocking it away with her forearm, but it snaked around it and swung around her torso. She then felt a sudden, powerful zap, as her soul wavelength was assaulted Akira's own. As she fell to her knees from the shock she could hear Tsubaki yelling for Stein to call off the dual, but he wouldn't. The attack stopped shortly after she fell, and Maka closed her eyes. She perceived all of the people on the side, watching the fight, she perceived Soul, running back towards the fight, she perceived everyone, including Akira, whom she scrambled back from in fear. Instead of a regular soul like that of everyone else, Akira's surrounded them like a bubble. It was a dark raven feather blue, with veins of scales the coloring of a witches purple.

It wasn't human, or weapon, or witch, or kishin egg, or even shinigami. It wasn't a mixed type soul either.

It was no soul type she had ever seen.

"MAKA!" Soul yelled, and she popped her eyes open. He had launched himself at Akira, who was standing right in front of her, his arm in blade form, aimed at Akira's neck. They caught the blade with a silver gloved hand, and he was thrown back several yards by the deep, blue purple light that had emanated from their chain when Akira has ensnared Maka.

This time when Soul ran towards them he and Maka grasped arms, and he turned into his weapon form. Now Akira had their back against Soul's blade.

That was not a good position to be in.

But Maka wasn't in a good position as close as she was to them either.

Akira let out another wave of Soul Menace onto the both of them, and leaped out of the way of Maka's swing. The next swing Akira blocked by holding their chain with the other hand, catching Soul's blade above their head. Then, out of the right side of their abdomen sprouted a scythe blade even larger than Soul's. In the same movement the blade appeared in Akira snared Maka, cutting her. Akira stopped the motion before it got more than half an inch deep.

"Are you ready to stop now?" Akira asked their wincing opponent.

Before Maka could answer they heard a shout, and Tsubaki's chain-scythe wrapped around Akira's waist, right above where the blade protruded. Akira was yanked away by BlackStar.

"You really want to see how I fight that much, huh?" They asked him.

"Is that a fucking challenge?" he snarled, his face inches away from theirs.

"BlackStar no." Tsubaki said sternly. He sighed, and she turned back into her human form.

Akira returned their chain whip to its former arm appearance, and turned to Maka and Soul. Maka was holding her side, but it wasn't bleeding very badly. Worse cuts had been had from just shaving her legs. This wouldn't need any more than some antibiotic ointment and a bandage.

"So you two are done?" Akira asked. Maka nodded, but the look on Soul's face made it clear that it was definitely _not_ over.

"Pitty. You two were just getting started." they murmured.

"Akira, Soul, take Maka to the Dispensary to get a bandage." Stein said, adjusting his glasses. "And Tsubaki I believe that it is my job as the teacher to say when a duel is over, not yours, am I correct?"

"Yes Professor." She said stiffly, though everyone knew she was right to have gotten BlackStar to stop it.

"Now since you and BlackStar are so eager to fight, why don't you and Kimi duel next?"

The silence on the walk to the dispensary was deafening as Soul made a point to put himself between Akira and his Meister.

"I didn't mean to cut you, I didn't realize my blade was going to be so close when it appeared. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, it isn't very deep." Maka said.

"You should know your weapon form better." said Soul bitterly.

"I haven't used that one in a long time, alright? I didn't mean to cut your girlfriend." Akira said aggressively.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Soul yelled as Maka laughed. As the three of them walked on, the quiet wasn't so charged.

Soon, however, it was broken again by Akira's voice.

"So what was that thing you did when you closed your eyes?"

Maka clenched her jaw as she remembered what Akira's soul looked like.

"It's called Soul Perception. When I close my eyes I can focus in on people's souls and see what they look like, and what they are."

"So you saw my soul?"

"Yes."

"Well I guess I should tell you what I am then." Akira laughed. Soul threw a puzzled glance first at them, then at Maka.

"And here I was thinking I'd be telling Liz and Patty this first."

"What are you?" Soul asked, completely lost.

"Well, it's a bit complicated. I'm Kid."

Maka and Soul both stopped walking.

"What?" they said in unison, completely dumbfounded.

"I'm Death the Kid. Technically."

"Technically?" Soul questioned.

"So all of that stuff at lunch about the orphanage wasn't actually true but the rest of it was. I'm half demon. My mother is the eighth Warlord, the Demon Queen Memoria. You see, Asura was made from a split section of my father's soul, but only his soul. I am made from a split part of his soul, _and_ a split part of Memoria's. For a really long time I lived with her in the Under Realm because she wanted to know what being an involved parent was like, and back then the two soul parts were connected in one piece. But eight years ago I was sent here to be my father's heir, and they split into separate Shinigami and Demon from the stress of how different everything was. All you've known until now was purely Shinigami. Now I'm purely Demon."

"Holy shit." Soul muttered, and Maka elbowed him in the ribs.

"So why are you a weapon all of a sudden?" She asked.

"My mother was the first Death Scythe, as in my father's first weapon. I could probably still be a Meister, I've always been able to change into a weapon, but it was easier to just be a Meister before. I'm kind of worried that my wavelength has changed too much to wield Liz and Patty though. Either way everyone's going to have to know this. Since I'm a different soul I'm a different person, but I have all the same memories and stuff, so I know all of you. Anyway, we should keep going to the Dispensary so they can clean and dress that wound."

The three of them continued to walk.

"And what caused this?" Mira asked while she got the necessary materials to tend to Makas cut.

"We were in Battle Arts and I forgot how wide my scythe blade was since she was closer to me." Akira said scratching their neck.

"Well atleast you had the mind to stop it from going any deeper, otherwise we'd have to call Stein in for stitches." She joked, the four of them knowing that she's just as good with stitches as he is, "You two may want to ice your arms as well." She added, gesturing to the purpling bruises left behind from Akira's chain form.

"Who should I be expecting next?" Mira asked after she was done with Maka.

"BlackStar and Kimi were starting when we left." Soul said, catching the icepack the nurse tossed him.

"Tell Stein he needs to start bringing a first aid kit next time he teaches Battle Arts. In fact, Kid, bring him this one so no one has to come all the way here for another little cut."

Akira caught the white plastic box with ease as they were walking out the door.

"Will do."

"She called you Kid?" Maka questioned on their way back to the second campus.

"Yeah, all of the faculty were alerted of the situation yesterday morning."

"Is that why Stein had us go up against you?" Soul asked.

"Yeah, he probably wanted to see the difference between a demon's fighting style and a shinigami's. Otherwise he may have called it off sooner."

"Nah, he wants to see our limits."

"Ya'll killed a fucking kishin I don't think he would want to see a fight that takes any of you to that kind of limit."

Soul snorted and Maka grinned.

"So tell us about your mom, not much is known about the only female warlord." Maka said.

"Yeah, and she likes to keep it that way."

"How long ago was she even here anyway, It can't have been that long ago since you're here, right? Wouldn't it be known if she came to Death City?" Soul asked.

"Uh, well, about that actually. Demons and Shinigami are immortal unless they have an heir, so we take a pretty long time to grow until the stopping point. I'm actually about 700 years old."

"What?!" Soul and Maka exclaimed in shock.

"Which is the developmental equivalent of being about 15 in comparison to those with human lifespans!"

"Yeah but _700 years old?!_ " Soul practically screamed, "Dude you're practically ancient!"

"I AM NOT!"Akira screeched. Maka couldn't stop laughing.

"Anyway," said Maka, almost out of breath, "tell us more about your mom."

"Well, people call her Lady Memoria, but she also has other names, like Patisaecula, and Liberalis. She is the supreme ruler of the Lower Realm, and the Eighth Warlord. Her madness affiliation is the Madness of Eternity. She was my father's first weapon, the original Reaper Scythe, and the weapon he used to fight Asura the first time. The people nickname her Blackthorn, after a tree the Celts say symbolises discipline, control, strife, and perspective. It's on her crest now," They pulled out the silver chain that had been hidden under their shirt. It was long, with a round locket about an inch in diameter. Carved into it, centerpiece, was an image of the sharp, twisting, gnarled branches of the Blackthorn tree.

"Underneath the tree is a serpent," said Akira, pointing, "Because they symbolise eternity and ballance, and she always thought of it as a union between her and my dad. Up here," they said, pointing to the symbol next to the trunk of the tree, under the branches, "is the alchemical symbol for magnesium, for eternal flame. This might be outdated though, she may have added a new carving on the other side of the trunk since I've left. I don't know."

"What's inside of it?" Maka asked, and Akira undid the clasp.

On the left was a picture of Kid, who still had the lines of Sanzu, but they were greyed out instead of bright white, with a girl who had pale grey skin and hair that was the color of wood, if wood could get rusty. Her bangs were white. They looked to be about 13, and were smiling. Kids eyes were a bright hazel, and the girls were a deep sapphire blue.

On the left looked like a family portrait, with the two children from the other picture as well as a young looking woman. Her skin was the color of obsidian, and her eyes shone like opals. Her hair was a deep crimson, and you could see needle like teeth in her smile. Her face was all sharp angles, like someone had painted it with a ruler.

"That's my mom, and my sister Rowan." Akira said after a moment of silence.

"That's your mom?"

"You have a sister?" both Soul and Maka said at the same time.

"Yeah, she's the first demon. My sister is younger than be by a few months. She won't be mom's heir, but she'll help manage the kingdom."

"How is your mother the first demon?" Maka asked, fascinated.

"Spontaneous generation from magic and other elements put together by the entity of that realm."

"Entity?" she questioned.

"The realm as a manifested living being. He doesn't appear often but when he does we call him granddad."

"Maka's gonna have to get a notepad for all of these questions," Soul joked. She shoved his shoulder and blushed. Akira grinned, looking like their mother.

"Your teeth changed!" Maka exclaimed. "How did that happen?"

"Oh, I, uh…" Akira mumbled, suddenly self conscious, "new ones came in the day before yesterday." Their friends looked horrified.

"You just generated new teeth?"

"Mhm." They shoved their hands into their pockets and stared at the ground as they walked.

"How did that work?" Soul asked slowly.

"They all fell out and then these ones grew in. It wasn't… terrible…"

"What else happened? Is all this hair new too or something?" He tried to joke.

"No, the lines just disappeared. I'm not sure you want to know what else happened."

"Well whatever took you two days to go through must have been some serious shit so you can tell us."

Akira and Maka both glanced at Soul.

"It's gross." Akira warned.

"I'm sure we can handle it."

"Well demon skin is grey, first of all. The second thing that happened was that change."

"Your skin isn't grey though."

"I borrowed Liz's foundation kit."

"Oh."

"So I lost all of my teeth, then all of my skin peeled off-"

Soul and Maka's stomachs jumped into their throats.

"Hold on it actually came off? I thought you meant it just changed pigmentation!" Soul shouted.

"Well it needed different cells to change pigmentation."

"Did anything else happen?" Maka asked faintly, hoping that was it.

"Well," her heart sank. It wasn't over. Why did Soul have to ask the first thing.

"Demon blood is really different from regular blood. It's basically black, but it isn't the same as the stuff Medusa made because that was synthetic. When the new blood started being generated, it made my body reject the red blood."

"What happened then?" Soul asked. Maka was ready to throttle him.

"I bled from every possible opening for a couple of hours."

They walked in a nauseated silence the rest of the way to the second campus.


	6. Chapter 6

That evening after class everyone was at Maka and Souls' house for an impromptu meeting, but only Soul, Maka and Akira knew that.

"Wow Soul, you really invited the chick that used you like she was in some hammer throwing competition?" BlackStar joked, socking him in the arm.

"We came to terms."

"Yeah, we decided not to compete in the Olympics since scythes aren't a regulated throwing object for Track and Field." Akira deadpanned, grinning when Soul and BlackStar both snorted.

Once everyone was situated in the common room Akira stood up and took a deep breath.

"I am here to explain a bunch of things." They paused, and decided that looking at the ground was the best course of action for further public speaking. They didn't like how everyone was staring at them. (Except for Maka, who was giving them an encouraging smile.)

"You know how I appeared right after your friend Kid disappeared?"

A few of them muttered yes.

"Well he didn't actually disappear…."

"Do you mean you know where he is?" Liz asked, sceptical.

"Yes. His soul is actually just a different part of my soul because instead only being made of Lord Death's soul like my brother Asura we were also made with a soul part of Lady Memoria the first Demon and the parts split instead of being one whole soul the part you knew before was Kid who was all shinigami but now it's me instead I'm all demon."

They looked like they were one notch away from hyperventilating as the four people who did not know this news already stared at them in bewilderment.

"For a long time we were just one soul, but then Lord Death made us come here, because we had been living with Mom in another Realm because she rules it She's also his wife and the first Reaper Weapon and the eighth warlord but we were living with her for a long time and coming here made the shinigami part and the demon part split so now we are two souls but one has always overshadowed the other for control. Now it's my soul that's doing it. So... here I am. I still have all the same memories I do know all of you it's just that none of you know me."

"Soooo… you're Kid?" Patty asked.

"No. I'm Akira. Kid and I have different souls. We know all the same stuff though."

"Wait wait wait so you're a demon? Isn't that bad?" BlackStar asked. Tsubaki cast him a glare.

"Demons are on the same level as Shinigamis. We are not inherently good or evil, and like Asura, and like humans, our souls can become sources of malevolence. We are few, like Shinigamis. My mother makes sure of that."

"And who exactly was your mother?" Liz asked, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin in hand.

"Lady Memoria of the realm of the Underworld, the first Demon, the first Reaper Weapon, and the first to call my father and idiot. She supposed, after being used to strike down her stepson, that a more stable individual would be created if two souls were mixed. Thus me. Well, not me, but, me before the two parts separated anyway."

"So she rules a Realm?."

"Yes."

"What's a realm?"

"Well it's just like a different plane of space that's separate from here."

"So your mom's still married to Lord Death?"

"It's a long distance relationship. They haven't seen each other in the past 600 or so years but it's not like they'd have anyone to cheat with even if they weren't loyal."

"If they've been apart for so long how are you here?" Patty asked.

"Ha-ha, well, about that-"

"He's old as balls." Soul stated. "We got this story on the way to the Dispensary." Maka and Akira glared at him.

"I'm immortal, developmentally I am the human year equivalent of a fifteen year old." Akira stated coolly, crossing their arms. "It's not like we need to grow up quickly after all."

"So if you're a different soul can our wavelengths still fit?" asked Patty.

"See, Patty. Asking the important questions, why don't we find out because frankly I have no fucking clue."

"Now?" Said Liz, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure, why not."

"Okay."

"Okiedokie!"

The sisters transformed, and Akira caught them with ease.

As soon as they did so, they grimaced, smoke beginning to curl off their hands.

"Is it working?" Liz asked, her reflection shining through the metal.

"Mostly." Their hands stopped smoldering. "It'd be a good idea to do some exercises though so I can tune into you guys properly at a faster rate."

"Is that why it felt funny?" Patty asked, her reflection now showing as well.

"Yeah." Her sister confirmed. "It could be worse though, so I guess we're lucky for that," she sighed.

The Thompson sisters turned back and flopped onto the couch again.

"The housing arrangement isn't changing right?" Liz asked.

"No."

"Then where have you been?" her tone was accusatory, like a mom scolding her child for being out past curfew.

"I was, uh, out."

"Where?"

"Around the city…."

"And what were you doing around the city?"

"...things..?"

"Which were?"

"I'd don't know, I sat in a tree for a while."

"For three days?"

"Yes."

"You sat in a tree for three days."

"Yes."

"You expect me to believe that."

"Do you want me to SHOW you the tree I was in?!" Akira nearly yelled, exasperated.

"You guys are going to have very interesting conversations." Tsubaki mused as Akira and Liz continued to bicker about Akira's recent activities.

"I'll say," Blair said, walking out of Souls room in cat form with a yawn. "All this yelling woke me up." she turned into her human form in her normal witch outfit and stretched. When she saw Akira she perked up though and jump over to them.

"Ooh! Soul and Maka have a new friend!" She said, hugging them in the way that pushes her boobs into people's faces.

Akiras face however, was one of stone cold disinterest.

"Please don't touch me with those." they muttered.

"Awww, your no fun," Blair pouted, letting Akira go. "They must be Maka's friend."

Akira chuckled at that backhanded comment as Maka glared at Blair, who looked back at Akira with a grin.

"Well this has been an interesting night." Liz sighed, stretching her arms. She was a little bit sore from the time it took Akira to get their wavelengths to fit right.

"I'll say," Tsubaki agreed. "We should probably get dinner started."

"Yeah. Hey who wants Chinese food?!" She yelled. A chorus of whoops and sures answered back, and Tsubaki left to get the menu from the pile next to the phone.


	7. Chapter 7

Deep in the night was a figure in a violet cloak. The shadows of the buildings clung to them like vapor tendrils, calling them, wanting to be made alive, to be animated, but the figure ignored them.

They watched Gallows Mansion, illuminated from the inside, It's three occupants tired from a night of socialising.

The violet figure then saw what they had been watching for, a flash of silvery white in the darkness.

"Praeripio." They whispered, and the shadows underneath the silver cloak lashed out like vines, holding them fast in an iron grip and dragging them down into the inky blackness.

They were spat out in front of the Violet cloaked one, the man in silver falling to his knees, retching.

"Interesting time of night for one such as you to take flight," said a voice from within the cloak that resonated like the scales of a metal concert hall xylophone.

"Interesting place for one such as you to be watching over." The man said gruffly, about to stand. A silver armored boot engraved with twisted branches swiftly connected with the man's chest, right over the diaphragm, and then again at the shoulder, causing him to fall onto his back. Shadows pooled around him, keeping him in place to an even higher degree than the sharp, gleaming foot resting above his heart, threatening to break one of his ribs if he so much as took to deep of a breath.

"Your kind have no business here, the child is ours."

"Oh, but the child is our business here." The man said smoothly. There was a sick crack and a squelching noise.

"Well you'll just have to remind them that they have nothing and will have nothing to do with this, now won't you?"

The man nodded, wincing in pain as his lung was scraped by broken bone. The foot was lifted, and he stood up, trying to remain dignified.

"How about I be a doll and send you home now, since the sun isn't out for you?" The violet cloaked one said in a voice smooth as satin, while the man was overtaken by shadows. When they dispersed, he was gone.

"What a nice fellow. I'm glad he understands the situation." They say to no one in particular, but she's listening.


	8. Chapter 8

"Okay so you know how pencils have a little rod in them?" Akira said to Liz as they and the sisters walked to school.

"Yeah?"

"How does it get in there? Do they just… grow the wood around the graphite or something?"

Liz looked at Akira's face to see if they were making a joke.

" _Holy shit,_ " she thought, " _he's being serious._ "

"Okay, so they cut a wooden slab in half," she began, "and then carve a little well into it. Then they fill the well with glue and put in the lead. Then another piece of wood is glued on top of that."

"Like a sandwich!" Patty yelled, clapping her hands.

"Yeah, like a sandwich."

Akira looked at the two of them in awe.

"That's so weird."

As they walked they talked about little things, like food, and pencils, and Akira pointed out all of the plants they liked.

At first, Liz thought Akira was looking around everywhere because they just wanted to see everything they could,like they did on their way home last night. But they kept checking behind them, and they kept frowning.

"Is something wrong?" She asked finally.

"Oh, no it's nothing."

"You aren't acting like its nothing."

Akira was silent for a moment.

"Something shouldn't be here." They said finally. "it's too bright, the shadows aren't as dark as they would be normally."

"What's that mean?" Patty asked.

"I'm not entirely sure. Come on, we need to get to school." Their pace quickened.

It was only a block of an empty street later when a light like white hot iron blinded them, and the sisters heard a clang of metal on metal. When their eyes adjusted, a tall, broad, impossibly pale woman was in front of Akira, knife parried against gauntlet.

"Run and call my father." They said, rigid.

Patty turned into her weapon form and Liz caught her, ready to fire.

"DON'T FIGHT, RUN!" Akira yelled, and Liz bolted down the street and around the corner where there was a large enough window for her to use. She fogged up the glass with her breath and quickly wrote the number every student at the academy knew by heart.

"Lord Death Akira's in trouble we don't know what's happening but he told us to call you-" she would have said more but an inhuman shriek cut her off. That was clearly all he needed to hear before yelling for Spirit.

"Sit tight I'm on my way."

When the Thompsons rounded the corner the fight had moved further down the street, near an alleyway. Akira was bracing themself on a wall with one arm, and inflicting soul menace on the glowing woman the way they had Maka with the other arm.

Liz fired at the woman twice, hitting her in the face both times. Akira slumped their shoulder against the brick building, clearly injured, but with their back facing her Liz couldn't tell how.

Just then, as Liz was running towards them, the world got dimmer. Spikes as black as oil shot out from the alleyway and impaled the woman through Akira's chain. Both of them screamed, and Akira's arm went back to normal, with small oozing holes.

The woman glowed bright, partially dispelling the impalements, but a blade that shone like obsidian sprouted, hilt deep, from her throat.

All that was left after that was a dull white soul, murky like clouded water.

Akira collapsed against the wall, and the sisters, both now in human form, ran to them. Seeing Akira from the side showed what they hadn't realized even happened during the time the bright light first happened. The ornate hilt of a dagger was all that showed under their left rib.

They heard the clicks of boots from the alleyway, and while Patty lifted Akira's head and tried to make them focus on her, Liz looked around the corner to see a girl, younger than herself, in a violet cloak. Before she could call out to her, Lord Death came into view, and when the other girl saw him she ran and disappeared into the shadows with the click of silver boots and the hem of a yellow dress.


	9. Chapter 9

"Explain to me what happened." said Lord Death, once Akira was taken to the Dispensary. Liz, Patty, Spirit, and Lord Death were in the Death Room, the girls each clutching a mug of steaming hot tea at Death's insistence.

"Well there was this really bright light, and this woman came out of nowhere-" Patty started,

"-But before that Akira said that everything was a lot brighter than it should be or something-" Liz interrupted,

"-And then he yelled at us to call you so I was in weapon form and Liz got to a window and called you." Patty continued.

"And what happened after you called me?" Death asked, looking uncharacteristically grim.

"When I got back Akira had the woman wrapped in chain and was doing that thing Proffesor Stein does, I shot her in the head twice," said Liz, " then everything got darker and a bunch of black spikes shot out from the alleyway through Akira's chain, which explains the arm injury, and the woman. Then she glowed and it kind of made the spikes disappear but then a knife got thrown into her throat by someone in the alley and only her soul was left."

"Did you see the person who threw the knife and created the spikes?"

"Yeah, some girl, looked a bit older than Maka, in a violet cloak and metal boots. I didn't see much of her face. She ran when she saw you and I didn't get to say anything to her."

"Interesting. Well, you girls had better get to class, I believe I have some calls to make. Spirit, you'll be substituting for Stein's class today."

"Alright."

"Lord Death?" Patty asked before the sisters left the room.

"Hm?"

"Is Akira gonna be okay?"

"I'm sure that everything with be just fine!"

"Alright so Professor Stein is out today due to a medical emergency in the Dispensary so I'll be here in his place today. Any idea on what he was going to be covering today?" Spirit asked, coming in late with Liz and Patty.

"We were going to talk about chain resonance." Jacqueline said.

"Okay, well, there's a section on that in the book you guys have right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay well get into groups, read and talk about it until I'm back. I'm going to go ask Stein what else he was planning for you."

The Thompsons joined up with BlackStar, Tsubaki, Maka and Soul when they sat down.

"Did something happen?" Soul asked, while Maka looked in the index for the page on Chain Resonance. "Where's Akira?"

"Something happened on our way here." said Liz, and they all looked at her and Patty.

"Some woman attacked us, well, Akira. He got hurt."

"Is she going to be okay?" Tsubaki asked.

"We don't know yet. Stein hasn't said anything."

"Who attacked them?" asked Soul, flipping to the page number Maka showed him.

"Some lady, who knows what she was though." Patty muttered."Her soul looked like that one time I accidently put milk into Liz's water glass because it was next to mine. It didn't even glow."

"Well that's not human," said Maka, "We should probably read the chapter before my dad gets back and talk about this later."

"The voice of reason speaks again." Soul joked, and Maka elbowed him slightly.

"I think we just need to get through class before we talk about this. Now who wants to read first?"

"Hey Mira, is Stein still busy?" Spirit asked, standing in the doorway of the Dispensary.

"I'm just sewing up the entrance wound now, I'll be done in a minute!" Stein called. Mira shrugged at Spirit and turned back to her paperwork. After a few minutes Stein came out from behind the white curtain.

"Is the kid alright?" Spirit asked.

"Probably, I've done all that can be done. As long as the stitches hold, Akira should be fine. Some of the intestinal wounds were already starting to heal once I got to the point of stitching, seems like the demon's body has itself covered for the most part. What do you think I should do with the knife?" The last part was directed to Mira.

"Wash it, first of all, who knows what's in _that_ blood. Maybe the kid will take it as a souvenir."

"Yeah, they can put it on a wall with other things that have almost killed them." Stein joked.

"I don't think I can put an entire set of stairs on my bedroom wall Professor." a groggy sounding voice said from behind the curtains. The three adults spun around.

"How the hell are you awake?!" Stein demanded.

"My brain thought I should be conscious for my hours of suffering."

"Well you need rest, so get back to sleep."

"k."

"So what exactly is it you were planning to do for class today?" Spirit asked, "Unless your ready to do class yourself since your done operating."

"I'm sure I can handle things on my own, Stein, you should go teach your class." Mira said, "after you've filled out the sections of the patient report that you didn't yell at me from the other room."

"I'll only be a few minutes, you may as well just stay here. It won't hurt them to be left unsupervised a little bit longer."

When Stein got back to the classroom, Spirit went back to the Death Room to see if he was needed anywhere else.

"Stein finished the operation, so he took over the class. Good thing we got Akira here like, 20 minutes before school even started."

"Yes, that one likes to be early." Lord Death responded, holding a piece of cracked yellow parchment. "Say, could you go out to the market and get me everything on this list please? I need to contact my wife and I'm out of ingredients for the trans-realm communication spell we use."

"Yeah, sure, why do you need to call your wife? Is it about what happened?" Spirit asked. He had gotten these things about ten years ago, in bulk. They normally only did this on their wedding anniversary, but it was fall now, not spring.

"Yes. I think her battles may have overflowed into my territory this time, so it would be best to ask her if anything has been going on."

"Okay, I'll be off then."

"Do be careful, who knows what else is in the city this morning."


	10. Chapter 10

After school everyone went to the Dispensary to visit Akira.

"They're sleeping, it would be in your own interests to keep it that way," Mira said, a slight threat in her voice.

"Don't worry, we'll be quiet." Maka assured her.

Mira took a long, pointed look at BlackStar, and pulled back the curtain.

"W-why are they… gray?" Tsubaki asked quietly.

"Apparently that's their natural color or something." said Liz.

"So what really happened?" Blackstar asked angrily, "Gimme the details."

"Well, this woman showed up out of some blinding light and attacked Akira, then they yelled at us to call his dad so we did, then some black spikes came out of the alleyway we were near, and a knife, and killed the woman. The spikes went through Akira's arm to get to the lady," she said, pointing to the bandages going from Akira's shoulder to wrist, "and he got stabbed under the ribs. Stein said he fixed that though."

"Liz told Lord Death that she saw some girl about my age in a purple cloak with silver boots in the alleyway, so she must have been the one who killed the lady." Patty exclaimed in a lowered voice.

"Silver boots? Isn't it a bit warm out for that?"

"Yeah, they looked like metal, and had some sort of weird tree design on them. But she was wearing a cloak, whatever weird fashion statement she's trying to make clearly is for all weather," Liz muttered.

"Tree like?" Maka asked.

"Yeah."

"Hm."

"What?" Soul asked, glancing at his meister's thoughtful look.

"Well, yesterday, on our way back from here, Akira told Soul and I about her family. Apparently they have a sister. Their family crest has a tree on it too. It may just be a coincident, it's not nearly enough information to just assume it's her though. Did you see anything else?"

"Nothing certain, no."

The group was quiet for a while, watching the steady rise and fall of their friend's chest under the white blanket.

"What do we do if it was Rowan though?" Soul asked finally, "What would it mean?"

"I'm not sure." said Maka finally, "But if it was Rowan, then why wouldn't she want to be seen?"

"Maybe she isn't supposed to be here." Suggested Tsubaki. "She might have known something was going to happen and came to save her brother."

Akira turned over onto their side in their sleep and winced, opening their eyes. They looked around at everyone and frowned.

"We're you guys just standing here, watching me sleep?"

"Basically, yeah." remarked Soul, "what woke you up?

"I tried to roll over. Bad idea."

"How are you feeling?" asked Liz.

"Like I was stabbed and then had my arm skewered. I'll be fine."

"I thought I told you not to wake the patient!" Mira said angrily, parting the curtains.

"Oh don't worry, I woke myself up by turning onto my side while I was sleeping they haven't done anything." Akira called. Mira fround.

"Well you'll have to leave soon so Akira can get back to sleep."

When she left, the group resumed their conversation.

"Do you know who attacked you?" Asked Tsubaki.

"Not personally."

"Do you know what she was?" Patty asked.

"Yeah."

"Well? What was she?" Liz demanded after a moment of silence. Akira pursed their lips.

"I'm sure it can wait." They replied, feigning casualty.

"No, it can't, and since we're your friends we have to know what's trying to kill you!" She whispered harshly, and Akira flinched.

"She was an Angel." He said finally.

Everyone stared.

"Yeah, and I'm a unicorn." Soul joked, cutting off his laugh when Akira gave him a sharp glare.

"Erek was the first of them, just as my mother was the first of the Demons. He was always intimidated by her power, but I never thought he'd be as stupid as to do something like this, unless this Angel was acting out on her own to start something. All I know is that for the longest time my mother didn't want him knowing about me or my sister for some reason, which wasn't hard since they rule over different realms. What happened doesn't spell good by any means though."

"Well you need to tell your father immediately then!" said Maka.

"I'm sure he already knows. He's probably talking to my mom right now unless he went straight to Erek, but I'm not sure he'd do that."

"So what happens next?" she asked.

"I don't know, depending on what my mother and/or Erek say, a council meeting might be in order."

"A council meeting?"

"Yeah, Life, Death, Angel and Demon. For all I know there may be more but they're the only ones I've met or heard about."

"Wait so there's a life god too?" Soul asked.

"Well yeah, if there wasn't shit wouldn't have balance. You can't have death without first having life, and having life without death would be a disaster of overpopulation and stuff among other things, it just wouldn't work. Lady Life's pretty cool, has a huge crush on my dad but she's just happy that he's married to someone he loves even if it isn't her. They're pretty good friends." Akira tried to stifle a yawn, but it was too big to do much good.

"Well, we should probably get going and let you sleep." Tsubaki said, putting her hand on BlackStar's shoulder.

"Yeah, we'll check on you before school, okay?" said Patty.

Everyone filed out of the Dispensary after saying their farewells, and Akira drifted back to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

" _For a long long time when the solar system was very young, only the elements of space existed. It wasn't until a great energy developed into Life, that the gods began to come into existence. Life was the first goddess. She found earth, and over time molded it into her greatest creation. Out of what she created however, came Death, for what is living that is not a god, must one day be gone, or be reused. The two of them presided over Earth alone, watching as it evolved. It was not until the realm below earth birthed a new goddess, Demon, that they payed any attention to what was developing above and below them. Through Demons existence and the universes law of Balance, the upper realm too generated a being of its own. It called itself Angel, and he was Demons counterpart. All of these realms were quite similar to one another. They all held life, they all had a guardian, but some of the guardians did not get along. Angel and Demon failed to see eye to eye, and sometimes, Life and Death could not get between the two to stop them from fighting._

 _Eventually, the four guardians made an agreement. Demon's realm, the least naturally populated, would be the home of remaining souls. Every so often, a soul would be put back onto the middle realm to live again, unless it had become corrupted by the malevolence. Souls that became corrupted would be destroyed. Some while they were on the middle realm through Death's attempts to keep the humans safe, and some that had not gotten to the degree of malevolence to be of his concern but we're not suited to be reused, would be destroyed by Demon herself._

 _Angel came to fear the power and usefulness that Demon had over him. His realm was not used for anything. He was always weaker than Demon and the others were because he had been created from less energy than everyone else had been. To protect himself, fueled by his paranoia, he created a barrier, blocking himself and his realm from the others. Eventually, this caused a similar one to be created barring Demon's realm. Angel's distrust soured his relationships with the guardians. And they have never done anything about it, letting the rift remain for all this time."_

" _Mom, why haven't you guys ever made up?" asked Akira, lying in bed._

" _Because sometimes, after someone has done you harm, you don't want to make up or forgive. It takes time and effort, and sometimes you don't see the other as being worth that time and effort."_

" _Well that isn't very nice." Akira pouted, about 7 years old in Demon age._

" _Not everything in life, or within our family is my child." said Lady Memoria sadly._

Akira woke with a start. Their mom told them of the creation as a bedtime story all the time. At one point they had asked why she couldn't be involved the others anymore and why, if she said that they should all forgive each other, she didn't try harder to reach them.

All she did was tell you that you might understand more when you were older, and that she would tell you the story of the Rift then.

Before then came, Akira was sent away with a one way ticket to Death City.

They couldn't shake the feeling that pent up emotions from events that caused the Rift were behind what was happening now, no matter what front they had disguising it.


	12. Chapter 12

"Abaddon you are making a mistake." Zadkiel said calmly, grabbing his friends shirt as he tried to turn away. They stood in Abaddon's study, off of his bedroom.

"A mistake?!" he yelled, pounding the ironwood desk with his fist. "I am continuing what my father began and was too weak to finish."

Zadkiel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Do you know what that Hag has done? Do you know what those children are?" Abaddon continued, "They are amalgams! I didn't realize it until that one broke apart, but it's sibling is still whole. That's why she was hiding them. She's planning something. She's planning her revenge and she has created beings with the power of two to help her execute it. That's why my father should have destroyed her all together, but he didn't. Now we will have to suffer the consequences unless I stop this now. Her power may be greater than ours but if we strike first with enough force it will cripple her."

"And what if you're wrong?" said Zadkiel, "Erek said what he did was a mistake. That he was shooting at a threat that was never there. What if you are doing the same?"

"But what if I'm not? Can I take that risk?"

"Yes."

Abaddon raised his eyebrows.

"If Demon attacks we will have the aide of Life, if not also Death. Our own defenses alone may not defend completely from this hypothetical attack from her of yours, but the last war took on a toll larger than just defending would have. And the less the toll, the better. Attacking would not be wise."

"What may be wise isn't always what justice serves." Abaddon growled.


	13. Chapter 13

"He's looking for you now, you know." a black, human shaped mass said.

"Oh, thank you, I had _no clue_." the girl yelled sarcastically back. She stood in a cave in a mountain range near Death City. Her hair was tied into a knot in the back of her head, a few stray curls popping out below it, and her white bangs hung in two loose ringlets at each side if her face. Her cloak hung behind her shoulders, showing her dress. It was a mix of sunflower yellow and lighter accents with the occasional peridot and emerald green. It had short lace sleeves and a flowy circle cut skirt that went to her mid-calf. The neckline was square, and the pattern of tree branches embroidered across the shoulders connected to the trunk at the back.

But it wasn't the bare, twisted Blackthorn, it was a flowering Rowan tree, with petals of pearly white. At her collarbone hung the Demon Crest off of a fine silver chain, the same one her sibling wore in the form of a locket.

"You don't have to take that tone of voice, Lady Rowan."

"And you don't have to remind me of things like that." she snapped back at her shadow, who sighed, and watched the sun set.

"How strangely the Astral Bodies represent themselves in the middle realm. I wonder what they look like to Zadkiel." the shadow remarked.

"I worry for him." Rowan says quietly, "If Abaddon finds out he's been talking with me he'll be gone for sure."

"Those who have the noblest intent are rewarded greatly, no matter the end," replied her shadow. It was something Rowan's mother had said once, eight years ago when her brother went away and Rowan said she'd go up there and steal him back. Rowan chuckled at the memory, but the family saying had a different meaning now.

"Abaddon's intents _are_ noble from his perspective though."

"Yes, but they aren't from the Malevolence's."

Just then Rowan heard the echos of a raspy voice from further into the cave, with a soft, timid voice responding.

She walked quietly towards them, and heard the raspy voice hush the quiet one, then the quiet one saying 'ouch'.

"Who are you?" Rowan asked, using her authoritative tone of voice as she dispelled the shadows the figures were hiding in. What she saw surprised her, but she didn't let it show on her face. Crouched behind a boulder was a lanky figure in a black dress. Out of their back was was a small puppet-esque thing, that was covering the wide-eyed person's mouth.

"Who're you?" the parasite asked aggressively.

"A passer by."

"I'm Crona…" the person stuttered, muffled by the gloved hand over their face.

"I'm Ragnarok. Where are you from?"

"A different realm. What are you two doing here? And what are _you_?" Rowan said pointedly to Ragnarok.

"I'm a weapon, and this is my Meister. What's it to you?"

"Are you a part of the DWMA?"

"They don't want us. If they did they would have found us by now. I bet no one's even bothered to look." Ragnarok muttered sourly, and Crona looked like they were about to cry.

"What happened?"

"Crona's mother was Medusa Gorgon, she was an enemy of the Academy for a while. We were there for a bit, but she made us go back with her and we were banned. Later Crona helped the Academy get rid of her again. We ran away."

"Why? You're obviously on the academy's side in all of this."

"I was a traitor." Crona muttered, "why would any of them want a traitor?"

"So I said that if we ran away, and they went looking for us, that would be proof we were wanted." Ragnarok stated. "Clearly they don't."

"So you've just been in this cave?"

"Not always…" said Crona.

"Alright, well you guys can camp with me if you want. I can talk with the DWMA eventually, but I don't plan on going there soon. You hungry?"

"Yes." Ragnarok said eagerly.

"You two eat meat?"

"Yes."

Rowan reached her hand toward a shadow and it disappeared, reappearing with a plastic container of meat. She put her hand into the darkness a few more times, pulling out some steel skewers, firewood, a bunch of rocks that she arranged in a circle, and a rectangle metal lighter. She gave her two guests a meat laden skewer each, and started a merrily crackling fire to roast dinner over.

"How did you do that?" Crona asked after a while of silence.

"I can use shadows as a sort of storage dimension." she said, as if that was something normal.

"That's kinda freaky." Ragnarok remarked. Rowan raised her eyebrows at him.

"You're one to say." she muttered. Ragnarok snorted.

"So you were the Demon Sword, am I correct?"

"Yeah."

"You did good work, helping to defeat the Gorgons, even if you two were their pawns first."

Ragnarok bristled, and Crona hugged their knees to their chest.

"How would you know?" The weapon snarled.

"I have second hand connections with Lord Death, and in my world soul corruption and evil effect a lot of things."

"So you are from a different realm?" Crona asked.

"Yes."

"I don't know how to deal with this." They muttered, pressing their forehead into their knees.

"Hey, Meister, keep pouting like that and your food will get burnt and I'll have to eat it!" Ragnarok pounded the back of Crona's head with one hand while they made a high wailing noise, pulling their stake away from the fire. Rowan looked on in surprise, but didn't say anything, instead took a bite of her food.

" _Getting to know these two will be interesting."_ She thought.


	14. Chapter 14

"Well this isn't your usual time of year." Demon remarked.

"Yes, well, these aren't my usual circumstances either, Dear." Death replied. His wife chuckled, the white points of her teeth glittering in the light of her office. They spoke through mirrors, Death through the one in his room, and Demon through the one on her desk.

"So why is it you're calling?" she asked, twisting a crimson lock of hair through her fingertips.

"I was wondering if anything odd has happened with you lately, or between you and Angel."

Demon pursed her lips.

"Someone broke through the barrier early Monday morning. We didn't find them. Rowan left at some point Tuesday and I don't think she's anywhere in the realm. Why, did she finally make true on that promise to steal her brother back?" she teased.

"No, not exactly. A few days ago Kid's souls changed dominance or something and now he's a demon. This morning they were attacked by a lone angel. The Thompsons said there was a girl in the alley in a violet cloak and metal boots. They said she killed it with black spikes and a throwing knife."

"That sounds like Rowan alright, why would Angel be attacking Elder? I thought he had spent enough time slaughtering my children already." Demon growled, her opal colored eyes taking on a menacing sheen.

"I think we ought to call a council," Death said hurriedly, "in order to sort this out. Who knows, it may have just been one angel trying to start another war, maybe He doesn't have any idea it happened what so ever!"

"Well then he'd better get his head out of his ass and start monitoring his people better." she hissed.

Death hoped she would word herself more carefully when the four of them were together in person.


	15. Chapter 15

The day after was spent planning the meeting, and eventually it was decided that the four of them would meet Death at the academy the next day. Death prepared a decently sized round table that would keep his wife and Angel out of reaching distance from one another, and a set of four rather large chairs that Life had provided last time she visited.

Death expected his counterpart to come around an hour and a half earlier than the actual meeting, since she didn't have a realm to travel through, and since it had been several years since they last time they had had a chance to talk.

She arrived right on time.

Life was a large, rounded woman with skin like roasted coffee beans that had vitiligo of a lighter brown in the patterns of rivers and lakes. She kept her hair natural, but close to her scalp so that she didn't have to bother with it too much. Her eyes shone like rich soil. She was wearing a simple white, sleeveless, modern style tunic with a brown hemp belt tied at her waist. Under the tapered floaty bottom of the tunic was a pair of black yoga pants and some sneakers.

"Hello darling." she said, her voice fruity. The two of them embraced, and then sat down for tea.

"So how's Iceland?" Death asked as Life put a square of sugar into her tea. "It's lovely, nice and remote but not too far away from people. It's good for management."

"That's great! How are the kids doing?"

"Pretty well, Magnolia had a time of herself trying to establish a place Australia but she powered through it as I expected her to. The other's are fine as you know, I see Terra warned you of the Demon Sword Meister in Europe."

"Yes, it was fortunate that she caught onto that, thank you."

"Well you're only in America, we have to keep tabs on the Demon weapons and possible Meisters somehow. It's not as if they only develop within the barrier of your soul." she giggled. Death laughed in agreement.

"Now." she said, taking on a more serious tone and putting down her teacup. "How are _your_ children doing?"

"Asura is now dead, as I'm sure you know, and Akira will be fine."

"And your wife's child Rowan?"

"She's… somewhere."

"She won't go far I'm sure." she said solemnly.

Once the two of them finished their conversation and their tea Death took Life on a tour of the campus, talking about how students have progressed, and the rebuilding going on after the fight with Asura. When they got back to the Death Room a jet skinned woman in a Royal blue velvet gown was in the room. The dress was cut and styled like something from the early renaissance period, but with a single, loose skirt instead of the fullness that it would have been at the time. It had a low scooped back and boat shaped neckline, the edges embroidered in a small strand of gold vines that went down from the middle of the neckline and stopped where the waist began. Around her waist was a real gold vine. The skirt was short enough to show the pointed toes of the black leather boots she wore. Her curly crimson hair was braided into a double dutch bun at the nape of her neck, keeping it out of her face. On top of her head was a coronet made of gold with inlays of small glittering opals that matched her eyes. Around her neck on a short pearl beaded chain was a black on white cameo of a blackthorn tree. She was the picture of elegant and respectable royalty.

"Lady Memoria Patisaecula Liberalis, you are looking well," said her husband in joking formality as he bowed. Memoria snorted and stood up from her chair, going to kiss his cheek. Life took a sudden interest in the hem of her shirt.

"It's nice to see you again too," Memoria cooed.

Just then the room filled with the electricity of magic, and there was a sharp cracking sound as another man stepped through a newly made hole in the fabric of the air. He was a toned, rectangular man, the shortest of the group by far but he made up for it slightly through the white patent-leather, chunky heeled platform boots. His pants were bellbottom white PVC, with golden zippered flares that had to open mid-calf to make room for the leg of his boots. His shirt was a white linen plunging v-neck with billowing sleeves that had wrist hugging cuffs. Over that was a white leather vest with gold studs across the shoulders. His ash-blonde hair was slicked back, showing his cold brown eyes, the darkest thing he had against his pale skin.

"Hello Death," he said, inclining his head, "Life," he paused, he and Memoria exchanging frosty looks, "Demon." Angel said slowly.

"Nice of you to show." she replied icily.

"Well then-" Death said quickly stepping between the two, "Why don't we all sit down and get this meeting started?"

"And why is it we're having a meeting again?" Angel asked sourly, pulling out a chair.

"Because one of _your_ angels nearly killed his son." Memoria shot back.

"I had no involvement in that." he said dismissively, with a passive wave of his hand.

Demon clenched her jaw a judged the diameter of the table. Death was glad he made sure there was an extra two feet over her lunging capabilities, even if she managed to slide using that dress of hers.

"I believe that you may want to question your court in order to get to the bottom of what happened." Death said sternly after the long pause.

"Well if I could just question the angel that did it surely I will be able to get to the bottom of it."

"Considering your position I suggest that you do not be so snarky young man." Life scolded.

"Well, when will I be able to question the offender?"

"You can't. She's dead." Death replied.

"Oh." he said, feigning shock sarcastically. "And who is responsible for _this_ development?"

"We don't know. She disappeared when I got there."

"Interestingly convenient." Angel muttered. "And you didn't bother to find the killer _before_ summoning me?"

"I'm sure you're search will glean adequate information, or are you doubting the capability of your court, Erek?" Memoria challenged. Erek bristled.

"I can look into it for myself perfectly fine." he growled.


	16. Chapter 16

It was saturday, warm and sunny, and people were outside all over the city. The Thompson sisters, BlackStar, and Soul were playing basketball, while Tsubaki and Maka sat nearby. After a few minutes, Maka put down her book.

"Do you think Lord Death still had Crona exiled after the fight or do you think Crona just left?" she asked.

"I'm not really sure. Lord Death hasn't said anything. It's been about a week and a half since Asura was defeated so you'd think that if Crona left on their own without telling anyone he would have told people to be out looking for them."

"I guess. I'm just worried about them."

"Maybe you should ask?"

"Stein didn't know."

"Hm."

In the background they could hear Liz whoop as Patty stole the ball from BlackStar and made a basket. Just then Akira jumped down from the brick ledge behind Maka and Tsubaki, starting them both.

"Hey." they said, sliding down to sit with them.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the dispensary?" Maka asked.

"Three days is more than enough time laying around for a stab wound. It's not like the blade was that wide."  
"Does Lord Death know you're gone?"

"Uhh… maybe…"

"Does Mira know you left?" Tsubaki questioned.

"Probably."

"You shouldn't be here, should you."

"I'm fine though." Akira shrugged, slightly concerned that they were going to make him walk all the way back to the dispensary. The girls sighed in unison.

"Yo dude! You're back!" BlackStar yelled. Akira grinned and waved.

"You wanna play with us?" Soul called.

"Nah, I'm good." They crossed their legs and looked up at the orange-turning tree leaves above all of them.

"It would be blooming season now if we were in my mom's realm." They said quietly.

"What's blooming season?" Maka asked, putting her book back down.

"It's sort of like spring, all of the plants bloom, and the whole world smells like flowers," Akira said wistfully, "the season after is like fall here, where everything is harvested, except the plants don't go dormant. Then the Growth season is where everything comes back after being harvested, but it still takes a while before it's Blooming Season again."

"How different is it from here?"

"There's a lot of parallels, but it's a bit smaller. Some of the animals and plants have different traits, but I could tell what they're like based on what they were in the Lower Realm. I think the biggest difference though is in the Great Forest. Some of the trees there are called Ironwood trees, like a few types of wood here and above are, but they grow from enchanted veins of metal and sprouted from the ground. Some areas like that have metal plants whose magic attract certain minerals, and they accumulate into crystals like amethyst and jade, and all kinds of things. Some of the animals are made from naturally animated objects, like golems almost. Some are made purposefully of course, but the natural ones are always the most interesting. You could never leave firewood out too long back in the main city because after a couple of days it might become it's own creature and run away, same thing with garbage. And the dragons would get into everything too so the whole place was kept pretty clean mostly just to avoid that kinda stuff."

"Hold on, you guys had dragons?" Maka asked, amazed.

"Yeah. They're pretty small, like, komodo dragon sized are the biggest they get, most are the size of just common lizards or salamanders. There's different kinds of course but Middle Realm lore kind of over-glorified them based on old dinosaur bones. They can't actually get that big anymore. There aren't nearly enough resources."

"So magic is a huge thing in your old realm, huh?" Tsubaki noted.

"Yeah. It occurs as naturally as water and it's something everything there can harness and use to some degree, if their soul doesn't produce magical energy in of it's own as a separate wavelength anyway."

"So, like a witch?"

"I guess."

"Can you do magic?" Maka asked curiously.

"Of course I can do magic, only humans can't, and even then Weapons and Meisters are a small amount of magic on their own since they have the ability to use wavelengths. You wanna see?"

"Sure."

Akira picked up a thin stick about a foot long, and it's sky-facing end burst into sparks of brilliant colors. Where the sparks landed on the ground small ash constructs appeared in the color of the sparks, delicately shaped into flowers. The girls stared in awe. When the stick got down to only an inch left, it sputtered out.

"That was amazing." Tsubaki murmured.

"Thanks!" Akira said excitedly, "I haven't done anything like that in a while, I was a little worried it wouldn't turn out right!"

"Elder?" a royal-looking woman asked from the entrance of the basketball court. Everyone stopped to stare at her.

"Ma!" Akira leaped up from the ground and ran to her. They hugged one another tightly.

"That's Kid's mom?" BlackStar asked, looking over his shoulder at Soul.

"She looks like a princess!" Patty marveled.

"Yeah, she's a queen actually." Soul remarked, glancing at Maka and Tsubaki and then back at the family reunion.

"Look at you," Akira's mother said holding him by the shoulders out from her, "My beautiful child, how you've grown!" She pulled them in for another hug. "Have you been able to get used to being here?"

"No." Akira mumbled. Memoria let out a deep sigh.

"Have you made any friends yet?"

"Yeah, they're over there."

Memoria looked up at the group of slightly bewildered human teenagers and smiled gratefully.

"Now," she said, looking down again, "We're going to take the opportunity of the four of us being in the same place to have a regular Council, even though it will take some time to get all of Life's children here for reports. So I'm going to be here for a while, alright?"

"Is Rowan with you?"

"She's in the realm somewhere, doing her own thing. I'm not quite sure what her deal is right now to be honest." Memoria admitted.

"Are you worried?"

"I trust that she can handle herself."

"Are you worried though?"

"A little, yes, but I worry about the two of you regardless of the circumstances. It's a parent thing," she laughed. Akira giggled with her. "So! Introduce me to your friends!" Memoria said.

When Akira turned back to them Liz thought he looked happier than she'd really ever seen them.

"This is Liz and her sister Patty, they were the first ones, and then I met BlackStar and Soul, and then Maka and Tsubaki." Akira said excitedly. Memoria smiled at each of them in turn.

"She looks so much kinder in person." Maka thought, remembering the way Kid's mother looked in the necklace picture.

"So why are you here?" Tsubaki asked.

"Has Elder explained the realms and the four Gods and everything to you six yet?"

Tsubaki nodded.

"Well, every so-often, the four of us have to get together and report the levels of corruption in the community. How many cases of Kishin eggs, and the trouble with the Gorgon sisters will be on Lord Death's report for example."

"What do you guys do that for?" BlackStar asked.

"We have found in the past," Memoria began calmly, though some tenseness was trickling into her voice, "that levels of corruption within the realms spike whenever something terrible pertaining to the gods is about to happen. In order to prevent something from starting up again, we are keeping an eye on possible warning signs."

"Is something going to happen?" questioned Soul, slightly suspicious. Memoria clenched her jaw.

"Only time will tell."


	17. Chapter 17

Your name is Zadkiel, and you stand on the balcony of the library, overlooking the palace gardens. It was a windy day, and after a few minutes you decided to stop trying to keep your long, dark golden bangs from blowing into your eyes. Bright pink petals from the flowering Dogwoods mixed with the white ones from the pear trees flutter in small loops. You take a few pictures of the scene to send to a friend later.

Some day, when all of this was over, she'd be able to see it in person.

Or, that's what you hope at least.

She has as many names as her mother, but you call her Mavourneen because it makes her laugh. You've met a few times, once when you were both young and there was a council. Abaddon had gone with Erek, and you as his 'guard' (the job is extremely vague, you're technically of a high servant class but he doesn't exactly let you do anything for him because he's too proud. Mostly you're just his friend and advisor now-a-days.) it was your obligation to go with them. Life's children were adults, and had duties across the countries of the middle realm, so they were with the Gods at the meeting table, which left the four of you, Mavourneen, Elder, and Abaddon, to your own devices in the city for about a week. Young as you all were, the only thing you guys knew was that Erek and Memoria didn't get along. None of you were old enough to know why, so you were all fine. You wish you were all still so innocent.

The second time you met her she had had a nightmare foretelling the greatest rise of Malevolence since The Rift. She called you, of all people, because she feared the Gods would think themselves too strong to need one another's support in fighting it, and some sort of agreement or alliance between species like the two of you was needed before the adults were to see the truth.

The third time was a little less than a week ago, when you broke through the barrier to warn her about Abaddon. He's beginning to scare you. Only two soldiers were able to be swayed into doing what he wanted them to, but if Rowan had not been there, Elder would be dead.

You wish you didn't believe her to be true when she said that everything that had been going on lately was building up to her dream, but you've learned to trust your gut instinct, and it follows her every time.


	18. Chapter 18

"Do you think they might not have looked for you because they thought you didn't want to be bothered?" you ask, "They wouldn't want to make you stay there if they thought you didn't want to be there."

Crona put their head on their knees again.

"I don't know." they mumble.

"Well, this Maka you told me about, she seems pretty nice." You poke at the fire with your stick again to keep it from going out.

"Not nice enough to go looking for us apparently." Ragnarok mutters angrily.

"You two were expelled for helping the Gorgon right?" Crona flinches, and you wish you didn't have to bring it up to make your point, "Well, maybe she thinks you're still banned. It probably wouldn't be much use arguing with Lord Death, knowing his policy on witches. I'm sure she'd argue with him for you if you asked for her help."

"I thought you didn't want to go to the city." Crona says.

"We've been here in the mountains long enough, and you two even longer, I think it's time to get you back with your friend."

You're awake once the sun begins to rise, and you start boiling water for a bath in the large metal basin you stuffed into your storage area. You also bring out one of your t shirts and a pair of sweatpants for Crona to change into until their dress is cleaned. You're broader and taller than them, but it should work in the meantime.

While they get ready to go to the city after breakfast you sit in a tree and take out a square mirror about the size of a picture frame. The middle realm doesn't have nearly enough raw magic for you to do the spell like you normally do, but with some improvisation and magic your soul creates on its own you pull it off.

"Mavourneen, is everything alright?" Zadkiel asked. His eyes look like rods of teal blown-glass. They always take you slightly off guard.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Look, I'm going to have to have a chat with Death-"

"What?!"

"-about a neglected student. Remember the fiasco with the Gorgon sisters?"

"The witches?"

"Yeah. Medusa had a kid to do experiments on. They, well, their weapon which is melted into their blood, thought that if they ran away and people went looking for them then they were wanted, and if there wasn't anyone looking for them then no one actually cared. Perfectly reasonable after everything those two have been through. I need to make sure they're taken care of, and in order to do that I will have to bring it up with Lord Death personally."

"Maevie that could jeopardize everything you need to be in the middle realm! What if he makes you go back home?!"

"He can't do anything just because he's an adult." you grumble, "I don't even know him. He has no authority over me!"

"He's not going to see it that way." Zadkiel sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Well, enough about me," you say dismissively, "How's mister destruction-bound up there?"

"No luck. His vision is too clouded at this point for me to do anything."

"Are you going to come down here with me then, if you can't stop him now?"

"You're going to need someone to tell you his plans, won't you?" he said slyly.

"Yeah, I guess I will. I don't like the prospect of you being found out though."

"Well I'm willing to take the risk, which is all that matters anyway since it's my own life-"

"Yes I get that." you snap. Zadkiel chuckles.

"I'm just as trained as he is you know, and everyone would be able to tell that I wouldn't be the one attacking, especially since he's so aggressive when on the offence."

"You're doing a pretty shit job of making me feel better about this." you mutter.

"Oh Maev, always too emotionally involved," Zadkiel teases, and you feel your face grow a shade closer to charcoal. "Keep in touch!" he says, never goodbye.

"Yeah." you say quietly, after he's broken the connection.

You hadn't been to Death City until the more recent events unfolded in roughly 700 years. It's an interesting place. You like the atmosphere of the market because it reminds you of the town square back home, but all of the wares are mostly foreign to you. Once you have gotten Crona and yourself into the school building via convenient shadows they take you to the Death Room. You are grateful that they seem to have a good sense of direction in this place.

"This is simply absurd." you mutter, looking at the long tunnel of torii and sighing inwardly. You pick up Crona and flash-step your way up the slope. Your father and companions are clearly alarmed when you appear at the top of the steps. You don't look at him, and instead you turn to your left and set down Crona, who proceeds to shrink behind you. You turn to him.

"Lord Death. It is nice to see you." you say stiffly, holding out your hand. When he does not take it you let it rest at your side. "I am here to discuss one of your former students."

Instead of speaking, he hugs you.

You have to tamp down the urge to dissipate with an iron will.

"Look at you, all grown now! Last time I saw you you were just a baby!" he releases you and steps back.

"I was 87, I was a toddler."

"You and your brother were both toddlers right after you were made. Anyway, it's good to see you. Now Crona," Crona shrank behind you even more, which was impressive, "Why did you leave?"

"We ddidn't thhink you wwanted mme bbecause I was a traitor, a-and then no one came looking…" they chattered. Lord Death sighed.

"The only reason I can think of for Maka not going after you is if she thought I had banned you again."

"Well does that still stand?" you ask, shifting your weight.

"No, you are welcome to be here if you wish."

You sigh in relief.

"Well, I guess we're going to have to go re-unite you with your friends then," you say, smiling down at them.

"Wait, Rowan," Lord death says, putting one of his comically large hands on your shoulder,

"We're holding a Council, so your mother is here."

"I know."

"Oh, well, have fun while you're here!"

"Mhm."


	19. Chapter 19

"Who was that?" Spirit asked after the girl and Crona had left.

"My daughter." Lord Death said sadly.

"You have a daughter?!"

"She's my wife's. Rowan Hyacinth Mavourneen are the names I remember, but if she takes after her mother I'm sure she has more than just that."

"She seemed a bit apprehensive to be greeting her dad." Spirit noted.

"We have similar problems when it comes to the relationships with our daughters. I have a feeling you're actually better off though!" he said, trying to joke it off.

"What do you mean?" Spirit asked, not getting the hint that Lord Death wanted to talk about something else.

"Well, she's only seen me in person once when she was 87, which was about 700 years ago, and 8 years ago I took her older brother and sole companion away. I don't blame her for hating me."

"Damn. That's rough." Spirit was silent for a moment. "Why doesn't she look like Lady Memoria if she's her kid? She'd have to have split her soul to make her right? She looks nothing like her mother."

"She's a Gestalt Soul, like her brother once was. That's why her bangs are white."

"And the other two don't know that?"

"Memoria has kept her experiment a secret. She doesn't want Angel to come up with another reason to possibly start a war."

The knock on the front door was so quiet Maka almost didn't hear it.

"Who'd that be?' Soul asked from the kitchen, and she shrugged, opening the door.

"Crona?"

"H-hi."

"Wait, what?!" Maka heard from the kitchen as Soul got up to come to the door.

"You came back." Maka said quietly, hugging her friend.

"Well you did a lot looking for us!" Ragnarok yelled, pulling at one of Maka's pigtails.

"You should be nicer to your hostess Ragnarok." a silky voice chided from around the corner of the hall, leading to the stairs. Ragnarok grumbled a gruff apology and let go of Maka's hair. "Besides, she thought you two were banned. There wouldn't be much point bringing you back to a city you aren't allowed to be in."

The speaker rounded the corner. She wore a loose sweater that fell off of her tan shoulders, showing a white tank top. The sweater had large horizontal stripes of a deep sapphire blue that brought out the girl's brown eyes, and a lighter, slightly grayer version of the same color. Her jeans were dark blue, and tucked into black leather boots. She had a silver chain hidden under her shirt. Her bangs curled in two locks, one on each side of her face, with the rest of her crimson-brown hair in a thick braid that went down to her waist. Maka closed her eyes for a second. The girl was human.

"Well I hope you two do well here, I'll be off now." she said with a smile as she turned away.

"Who's your new friend?" Maka asked with a grin after the girl had left.

"She said her name was Hyacinth, but she didn't tell us anything else." Crona muttered sheepishly.

"Where'd you go? Why'd you even leave? We thought Lord Death had made you or something." said Soul as the three of them walked into the living room.

"I didn't really think you guys would want me after I betrayed you…" Crona whispered. Maka turned and hugged him again.

"You're fine." she said quietly.

Crona began to cry.

"Why couldn't we have stayed with that lady?' Ragnarok whined, "At least she was hot and could actually cook." he muttered, looking side eyed at Maka.

"Maka's cooking is Perfectly Fine!" Soul yelled while his meister laughed and pinched Ragnarok's cheek.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you?"


	20. Chapter 20

_You turned all the mirrors in the house around so he couldn't check on you. You hate the feeling of being watched. Everywhere you look there's some sort of skull, staring impersonal gazes, following you from room to room. Everything looks so perfect, but you hate it. It's a cold, lifeless perfection of a place that has never been lived in before._

 _The silence around you is boxing you in and you want to leave, but you can't make yourself go outside._

 _Nothing looks right outside. Everything is close but not the same. Every gust of wind sounds wrong against the trees. Everything feels like it's been sapped of magic but you know that nothing here had magic to begin with, nothing here that isn't as old as you and hidden away. Away from the humans._

 _Humans, the most incorrect thing about anything in the city. They're all that's there. No Ghouls, no Sprites, no Fey, none of the creatures you've grown up being around. Just. Humans._

 _The outside is to quiet for you anyway, even if you were to leave._

 _The sound of the students wandering the halls is gone. There's no large bustling kitchen to sit in as you watch the army of servants micromanage the workings of the castle. There's no garden, and even if there was the usual white-noise chatter of friends would be gone. You can't talk to your mom or your sister ever again. You can't talk to anyone you know ever again._

 _You don't even know_ _ **him**_ _. You've met him twice in your life. The first time 600 years ago, and even then you ran around with your sister, and Zadkiel, and Angel's godling because it was a Conference. The second time you met him was about a day ago. Or, probably about a day ago. You aren't sure anymore._

 _The doorbell rings, but you continue to lay on the bedroom floor and stare at the ceiling._

 _Then it rings again. You roll over and get up to look out of the window. Some red haired guy is out front, looking annoyed. Eventually he notices you peaking out at him from behind the curtain, looks you dead in the eye, and holds down the doorbell button with an agitated force._

 _You shift downstairs, crack open the front door an inch, and glare at him._

" _Hey, uh, your dad was wondering if you were okay. He hasn't heard from you and all he can see in the mirrors is wall."_

" _Hm, I wonder why." you mutter. Not even the energy of sarcasm is in your voice.  
_ " _Can I come in?"_

" _Why would you want to do that?"_

" _To see if you're alright?"_

" _Why does whether I am alright or not concern you?"_

 _The man sighed._

" _Because I was told to check up on you and to be honest, you aren't lookin' too good, kid."_

" _How unfortunate. You can leave now."_

 _The man has the nerve to block the door from closing with his shoe. You glare up at him._

" _You were told to check up on me and you have. Now Leave," you growl._

" _When was the last time you left your house?"_

" _My house is in the lower realm."_

" _Have you gone outside in this realm yet?"_

" _Why would I? Everything's wrong."_

" _What day is it?"_

" _How the hell would I know?"_

" _Do you know how long you've been here?"_

" _Why are you asking me stupid questions? You're just being obnoxious."_

" _Your father said that your family has a tendency to loose track of time. How long have you been here?"_

" _A day or two," the man's face looks surprised, "why?"_

" _Have you eaten or slept at all?"_

" _None of the food here tastes right and I can't sleep with all those damn skulls watching me."_

 _The man is silent for a while._

" _You've been here for nine days kiddo."_

" _Oh." Your voice sounds hollow, and you can feel the man on the other side of the door only get more concerned._

" _Well, I'm not leaving until you eat a solid meal and get some sleep, so you may as well let me in so I can help you."_

" _Why should you care if I eat or not, just tell Death that I'm fine and get it over with," you grumble. The man wedges the door open a fraction more so that you can see a whole half of his face._

" _Because I'm a dad too, and I'm not gonna let some child neglect themselves."_

 _After about a minute of staring at him you realize that he isn't joking. You let him in._

" _My names Spirit by the way. I'm one of the Death Scythes."_

" _I figured."_

" _You got a name kid?" he asks as he follows you to the kitchen._

" _You can call me Elder."_

" _Like, oldest…?" the man asked._

" _Like the tree."_

" _What kind of person names their kid after a tree?"_

" _You dare to question my mother?" You say, holding back a hostile tone._

" _Well, uh, why'd she name you after a tree is all…"_

" _The Elder symbolizes regeneration, creativity, cycles, and rebirth."_

" _Huh." Spirit looked around a bit as you winded through the hallways until you got to the kitchen. "I guess this place really doesn't look any more inviting on the inside than it does on the outside."_

" _What does it look like on the outside?"_

 _Spirit stares at you._

" _You don't know what it looks like from the outside?"_

" _Well no, I told you I haven't been outside yet."_

" _You didn't get in here from the outside?"_

" _This is where I was when I entered the realm."_

" _Huh. Well buddy, we need to get you something to eat." Spirit said, opening the refrigerator door. "I'm thinking something with eggs since you haven't eaten in so long. What's your opinion on omelettes?"_

 _You shrug._

" _You aren't much of an optimist are you." he sighs._

" _I don't have any reason to be at this point." You mutter. You see him glance at you sadly out of the corner of your eye, and you glare back once he's turned back to the fridge. You don't need his pity. He's the one who can leave whenever he wants._

" _Well, you probably don't know what most of this stuff is so I'm just going to make an omelette and you can see if you like it instead of me asking if you like any of these things individually. I'll leave the pieces of chopped up stuff big enough for you to pick out if any of it really bothers you."_

" _Okay."_

" _Do you know where anything is?" he asks. You make a general gesture to everything around you. He stares at you._

" _Anything really isn't specific enough for me to help you."_

" _I need a pan. Like a frying pan."_

" _I don't know that word."_

" _You've never had to cook for yourself, have you?" Spirit sighed._

" _Well, no, but we spent a lot of time in the kitchen anyway. I just don't know what a frying pan is. They never used english in the kitchens, they used Daemonic. What's it look like?"_

" _Uh, well, it's like a circle, with a long handle like a inch across," Spirit said, trying to draw it out in the air with his fingers, "the bottom is flat, and it has walls that are curved slightly out so that the rim is wider than the base by a little. It's pretty shallow?"_

 _You walk to one of the cabinets above the counter and open it. There's a rack of what you think he was describing hanging by their handles. You climb onto the counter to get him one._

" _This?"_

" _Y-yeah, please get down from there." You jump down and he makes a scared strangled noise in the back of his throat. You stare at him as you give him the 'frying pan'._

" _Sorry, my daughter is four, she's been climbing everything she can get her knees onto since she was two. Seeing a child on top of anything over a foot tall freaks me out a little now."_

" _I'm not a child."_

" _Your like, 12."_

" _I'm pretty sure I'm 13!"_

" _You look 12."_

" _Well you look 18."_

" _You only furthered my point with that kiddo, and I'm 22."_

" _Isn't that a bit young for humans to have kids?"_

 _Spirit sighs and looks in assorted cabinets until he finds everything he seems to need. You wander out of the kitchen and end up sitting on top of one of the banisters when Spirit goes looking for you. He looks like he nearly has a heart attack when you drop down. It's only from the 2nd floor. You've done worse. The thing he gives you is yellow folded over itself with more yellow, some kind of pink bits, and slices that are red. He says that its egg with cheddar cheese and ham and red bell pepper. These words mean nothing to you so you just eat it. You like the red parts best. He looks really glad when you eat the whole thing._

" _Have you showered since you got here?"_

" _No."_

" _You should probably do that before you go to bed."_

" _You're going to make me go to bed to?"_

" _Well yeah, it's not healthy to be without sleep so long."_

" _I slept sometimes." you mutter._

" _More than three or four hours at a time?"_

" _No."_

" _Well you need more than that."_

" _How would you know? I'm not a human."_

" _That doesn't change the fact that you still need to keep yourself functioning the same ways humans do, kid. Now go get yourself clean."_

 _You huff._

 _Eventually you're clean and smelling foreign, sitting on the bed._

" _You gonna sleep alright?" Spirit asks from the doorway._

" _No."_

 _Spirit chuckles and walks in to sit with you._

" _You wanna call your dad?"_

" _No."_

" _Do you want to talk about it?'_

" _About what?"_

" _Your family."_

 _You say nothing._

" _I'll tell you about mine."_

 _You shrug._

 _Spirit pulls his wallet from his pocket. It has a photograph in it. In the photograph he and a blonde, brown eyed woman sit on the wall of a yellow stone balcony. Sitting half in each of their laps was a blonde little girl in an orange jumper a striped shirt._

" _That's my wife Serenity, probably among the strongest Meister's the DWMA has ever had. The girl is Maka, she's our daughter that I mentioned earlier. Isn't she cute?" Spirit beamed, and you nod._

" _Well, you ought to get some sleep. I'll be going. If you ever want to talk you can just call your dad and ask for me, I'm the only Death Scythe in the city right now so I'm usually in the room with him unless I'm needed at home."_

" _Alright."_

" _Bye. Eat something when you wake up, even if you don't feel hungry."_

" _Okay."_

 _You still hate being here, but for now atleast, you may have someone to finally talk to._


	21. Chapter 21

"Hey 'Kiel you sulkin' again?" Almas calls from outside of your bedchamber door.

"Why would I be sulking?" you ask, standing at the large open-swung window, turning the colored pieces of Ringing Glass you have hanging in front of it.

"Because you have to go to the middle realm with prince stubborn without me of course." your weapon teases, walking through the door.

"I could just ask if you can come with if you're that concerned about my safety Al."

The yellow Rose shaped piece of glass turns and catches the light, tinting Almas' dark skin and eyes with gold. He's so terribly transparent to you, no matter how casual he tries to be. He blinks slowly and looks down at his feet, hands in his pant pockets.

"I'm just worried that something is going to happen, and if I don't go with you to make sure it'll get to me."

You chuckle, and he cracks a grin.

"I appreciate the concern, I'll bring up the proposition with Abaddon."

"He might get suspicious though, if you tell him it's because I'm worried he'll wonder what there is to be worried about ya' know?"

"I'll just say you're interested in seeing the middle realm or something, I'm sure he'd get it."

"Hey Abaddon, can we talk for a second?" you ask, knocking on his open door. He's sitting at his desk looking over a bunch of papers.

"Sure." he says without looking up, running a hand through his short, ashy blond hair.

"So about the conference-"

"We're going whether you like it or not Zadkiel."

"I know that, Almas wants to come with."

"Your weapon?"

"Yes."

"Is it a necessity that he accompany us?"

"Yes."

"You're that close?"

"Well, we're a pair."

"I guess that just isn't something I'd get then."

"No, it's not."

"Well I guess I'll let him come."

"Okay, thanks!" you say, walking out of the doorway.

"Pack your shit we're going to earth!" You call, opening the door to the castle apartment you share with your weapon. Almas whoops and punches a fist into the air, you grin.

"So, you excited to see your girlfriend?" he teases.

"For the last time I've seen her like, three times, we've never even held hands!"

"You like her though," he says, plopping his thin frame onto the couch.

"I like most people," you reply dismissively.

"You can't fuckin' deny it with me bro, I can feel it in your soul dude."

Well what you can feel is the shade of red your face turns as you walk past him and snatch the pine green beanie off of his head.

"She's too pretty I can't handle it." you whisper dramatically.

Almas bursts out laughing, "I'm excited to meet her then! Maybe Abaddon will realize that there's not actually a threat to the realm if he meets her again."

"There is a threat to the realm though." you say.

"Well, yeah, but it isn't like, a physical form we can fight right now."

"Not yet."

"Well can we stop it from taking a physical form?"

"I don't fucking know, it's never happened before. It's not like we can go to the library and just look it up."

"Okay, well, we need to pack if we're leaving today. How long will we be there?"

"To be honest I have no clue. Technically we should be there for about a week but with how things can end up it may be wise to pack for every possible scenario."

"So I should just pack like I normally do then?"

"Yeah," you laugh.

Within the next two hours the three of you are standing in Death City.


	22. Chapter 22

((Okay so I accidentally doubled a chapter where there should have been something else right after the council meeting started, so go to the new chapter right after the council meeting. It's important.))

"Akira where'd you go, it's time for dinner!" Liz called, walking around the first floor. "Patty," she sighed, "help me and go to look for him please."

"Okiedokie!" She skipped away giggling. "There's no hide-and-go-seek when it's dinner you silly goose!" She called down the hall, and Liz chuckled.

After about five minutes the two of them found Akira hanging upside down off of the second floor balcony of the stairs with their legs wrapped around the posts of the railing.

"Akira?" Liz asked. They were staring blankly into the window with their arms crossed. "Akira!" she said sharply.

Patty went over to them, reached her hand up, and stuck her finger into their ear. Akira noticed them then, jerking to the side and looking at the sisters like they just showed up out of thin air.

"What."

"It's dinner time." Liz said crossly.

"Okay?"

"We've been looking for you for seven minutes and you didn't even notice? What the hell are you even doing?" She practically yelled, gesturing up and down.

"Sorry I just kinda… Blanked out." Akira muttered, putting their hands up and dropping down onto the floor into a roll and then standing up.

"Do you do this often?" Liz asked as they walked back into the kitchen.

"Kind of."

"Why?" Patty asked curiously.

"I don't know, I just do. It's not that important." they say in a defensive tone of voice, and the sisters decide to drop the subject.

"So you got to see your mom today." Said Liz, spooning out a section of lasagna from the night before.

"Yeah!" Patty exclaimed, "she's so pretty!" Akira smiled.

"She's going to be around for a while, but I'm pretty sure she'll be visiting with my Father most in between meetings since they haven't seen one another in so long."

Liz snorted and put her fork down. Akira's face turned a surprising shade of charcoal.

"I don't even know how that would work," Akira whispered loudly to their plate after a few slightly awkward moments of silence, "He's practically a tent."

Liz burst out into full blown laughter, and Patty and Akira both giggled.

"You've gotta give him some credit," Liz said between gasps, "he at least has a face!"

"Sometimes he even goes all out and adds arms!" Akira added.

The lasagna was cooled enough to eat by the time the three of them had stopped laughing.

"It's a nice evening." Your shadow comments, the two of you sitting on the steeply slanted roof of one of the DWMA's towers.

"The colors of the sunset look like different shades." You remark, shifting your foot to stop it from falling asleep.

"Memoria is going to find you, you know, especially now that Death knows your here."

"To be honest I am surprised he didn't find me my first day, hour even. I'm in his soul after all, and he should be able to tell when there's a powerful non-human soul within the barrier of his own. Maybe he's still too used to feeling Asura."

"Well he'd better start noticing other entities quick or else something bad may happen." Umbra frowned.

"What, like all the other bad things that happened over the past four years involving this place?" you ask, referring to the three Gorgon sisters, the outbreak of your half-brother, and his madness. Umbra chuckles.

"You know those are just fuel."

"Yeah, fuel and distractions. Why do you think I'm here? He has kids, fucking children for goodness sake, going around vanquishing souls that have evil concentrate while none of them notice the practical ocean of evil concentrate under all of us. He's a fool. It's strongest here because he puts the kishin eggs in the ground of the Death Room but they just leach new evil back into the system like a human landfill into water."

"You know all of this and yet you don't listen to me, or, rather, yourself, considering that I harbor a section of your own soul, and just tell the adults who know what to do with it?"

"They've never dealt with something like this before. Besides, if it takes a hybrid to notice it in the first place I'm probably going to have to be the one to get rid of it. Anyway if my theory is correct, and this thing is what made Erek paranoid enough of my mother's power to kill my three half-sisters then who's to say it won't try to stop me by diverting their attention that way again? I mean, how else can you explain what's up with Abaddon?"

"I still think that it may be a wise decision to at least make your mother aware of your suspicions." your shadow sighs.

"I understand, but if I tell her then she will take control and I don't think she'd let me do anything out of fear that I would get hurt. I'm younger than the others had been still, and even they couldn't protect themselves well enough. She'd have every logical and motherly right to do that no matter what I said." You chuckle, knees to your chest and chin in the crooks of your arms.

"But as a Queen and commander of an army she would have to objectively consider you as likely to be her most powerful weapon, which is a path she is also probable to take."

"Yes, but how far into the game will we have to be losing for her to truly take on that mind set?"

"Quite far I believe."

"Quite far indeed."


	23. Chapter 23

"So, where exactly were planning on us staying?" Almas asked, looking over his shoulder at Abaddon, who was surveying the city.

"Did you think that far ahead?" you ask, studying Abaddon's pursed lips and slight frown.

"We'll stay with my father." he said finally.

"Do you even know where he is?" Almas sighs, kicking at the rocky ground. You look away from them. The three of you are standing on a cliff on the forested side of the city border. The place looks like a mountain of precariously placed buildings. At the top center is what you can only assume is the school. The place looks just as comical as Maev had described it.

"We'll phase there, my target seems to have been slightly off." Abaddon says, beginning glow around the edges.

"Oh, did you intend to actually land _in_ the city?" Almas asked in a slightly mocking tone. Abaddon responded with a cutting glare.

"We should go now if we want to find Lord Angel before sunset ends." You say, grabbing your weapon's hand and pulling him into a patch of dimming sunlight. You close your eyes, seeing all of the places in the city where there was enough light to form out of. Soon you and Al are stumbling onto cobblestone, at the top of an unnecessarily long set of stairs.

Before you could look around to see where Abaddon was someone falls next to you, the cobblestone cracking in circles like glass from the impact. They have their back turned towards you, and all you see is long brown hair, about half a foot shorter than you.

"Abaddon, how long has it been? 600 years?" the girl says as Abaddon straightens to his full height of a little under six feet, several inches shorter than you. You walk around to him and see that the girl addressing him is Rowan. The princess holds her hand out to the prince, and he takes it with a grip of formality. He regards her coldly, but she seems to ignore this and smiles at him instead. You can see Almas smirking at you behind her.

"And Zadkiel! You're still taller than me!" she said as you high fived each other. She had her white bangs braided back out of her eyes that came together into a curled lock of hair in the back. Her loose sweater was lilac, tucked into a pastel yellow pleated skirt. You notice silver flats and white thigh highs when you casually look down.

"We are not here to socialize." Abaddon says sternly.

"Conferences are just about the only socializing the gods do, especially with one another. We should enjoy ourselves!" Rowan counters, and you can't help but smile at her cheerfulness.

"Well, I'd like to see my father, are you aware of where he may be?"

"Death made new rooms for him and Life, their doors are on either side of the doors to the Death Room. Do you need me to show you the way?"

"No." Abaddon said proudly, walking into the building as you groan inwardly.

"Are you going to follow him?" Rowan asks after the door shuts.

"No. He wouldn't want me to be there to say that he should have had you come with." She and Almas laugh, and she turns to him.

"So, who're you?" she asks.

"I'm his weapon, Almas."

"Shotgun, right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"You've been mentioned. I assume you know the situation?" she said, her tone of voice taking a grave turn.

"Yeah, yeah I know."

"Good. Once I get my brother in on it we should be strong enough to take whatever's coming."

"Have you seen him yet?" you ask.

"I've seen him loads of times."

"Have you made yourself known to him." you sigh.

"No."

You look at her questioningly.

"He needs time to adjust before I go in a unbalance him again. I mean, me coming here caused the switch to begin with, who knows what actually being around me will do to him."

"Well, what if being around you helps him get back together?"

"Do you think that would happen?"

"Well, I don't know, it's not like we've dealt with it before."

Rowan sighs, and looks out onto the city so you can't see her face.

"So where are you staying?" Almas asks.

Rowan shrugs.

"You are staying somewhere, right?" you question, now concerned.

"I'm capable of sleeping anywhere when I need to. There's no need for the two of you to concern yourselves." she said sternly, still staring off into the sunset. The light turned her human-toned skin gold.

"You should probably just go home."

Rowan looks at you over her shoulder, unimpressed.

"I'm not going all the way to another realm to sleep, Zadkiel."

"I meant where Elder lives." you reiterate with a sigh.

"They're not Elder, they're Akira. His soul split remember? This one's Akira." she corrects you.  
"How convenient that Lady Demon gives all her kids three names." Almas joked. Rowan gives him a half-hearted smile.

"Three is the number of power." She says. "And names should represent everything."

Okay so I write a lot of symbolism in this and to be honest no one's going to look up the meaning of character names unless you're in english class so I'm just going to give the ones not explicitly mentioned already to you guys here.

Akira: Bright

Rowan: symbolises Power, vision, protection, healing, balance, and mystery.

Mavourneen: Derived from the Irish phrase _mo mhúirnín_ meaning "my darling"

Hyacinth: Symbolises consistency, but also rashness

Abaddon: Angel of destruction

Zadkiel: Angel of mercy and freedom, Patron Angel of those who forgive

Almas: Diamond

Memoria: Memory

Saecula: Forever

Liberalis: Generous

Yellow Roses represent friendship, from the part with the glass where Almas is introduced.

Earlier Lord Death refers to Rowan as a Gestalt soul and I forgot to link it then sorry.


	24. Chapter 24

"Akira, you up?" Liz asks, knocking softly on kid's bedroom door.

"Yeah."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Liz opened the door and was greeted with Akira sitting cross legged in the exact middle of the room, their back straight, palms resting on bent knees. She could tell by the way his hair held volume and stuck up in weird places that they hadn't bothered to straighten their hair after they showered. She leans on the doorway and watches her meister's closed eyes and slow breathing with an amused expression.

"What are you doing?" she asks, and Akira cracks an eye open. Liz blinks in surprise. The eye makes her think of an emerald set in dark stained wood. Seeing her expression, Akira opens the other, matching, eye and looks at her confused.

"What?" he asks.  
"Y-you're eyes. They changed."

"They did?" Akira says, looking shocked and springing up to look in the mirror."Holy shit." they mutter.

"Did something happen?" Liz asks.

"Okay so I've been up all night kind of seeing what exactly I'm capable of with magic-"

"Wait, what?"

"-and I've been trying to shape-shift into what Elder looked like, because with the council and all I don't want them questioning anything. It's hard to focus since I've never done it before and there's like, no magic in the atmosphere for me to work off of, so I had to practice using my magic wavelength." They look at Liz through the mirror. She notices three grey lines begin to form on one side of Akira's hair, and they turn around with a huge grin on their face. She gives him a timid thumbs up.

"So what's up?" Akira asks, setting two small, round objects onto the dresser.

"Oh!" Liz said, remembering, "Some woman's here for you, she said her name's Mavis." She see's Akira's eyes widen and feels the influx of air as he runs past her, slides full speed down the railing, and stumbles onto the floor below.

" _Why do they insist on being so careless."_ Liz thinks, walking out of the bedroom and looking down at the reunion from the second floor.

The older woman had mousy brown hair that was hinted with silver pinned into a neat bun at the back of her neck. Her gray skin had light crinkles of age, but her coffee eyes still held a youthful glimmer. The dark brown dress she wore was plain, and had a white apron tied around the waist. Her heeled boots made sharp clicks on the floor.

"Aunt Mavis!" Akira cried, jumping into the woman's outstretched arms. Liz glances at her sister who's on the other side of the staircase, eyes going between her and the woman. Liz shrugs, and the two continue to watch the two demons.

"Oh my child! It's been so long!" Aunt Mavis exclaimed in a rough, throaty accent, holding Akira an arms length away by the shoulders so she could look them up and down.

"Still so small," she tutted, "that idiot father of yours has been feeding you nothing but human food, hasn't he?" There was a touch of anger in her voice.

"There's nothing but human food, and I feed myself."

"Irresponsible." Aunt Mavis huffs, "This realm doesn't have nearly enough calories for a growing godling." She walks briskly to the bottom of the stairs, looking at Patti and Liz in turn. "So," the woman barks, "You two are his partners?"

"Yes." Liz answers.

"How long?"

"Little over four years. Who're you?"

"His mother hired me before he and his sister were born as a nursemaid. I aide in managing the household and keeping the children in line while Her Majesty deals with issues and politics in the realm."

"Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be looking after the school?" Akira asks.

"I demanded to come with your mother. Eventually she stopped arguing with me. Besides, I needed to check up on you and I also need to find your sister. She's probably frolicing through the city with her shield up as we speak."

"Shield?" Liz asked, walking down the stairs.

"Soul protect that also makes her look like a human. A combination of shape shifting and wavelength concealment." Akira clarifies. "She put the spell together herself centuries ago so she could hang out in the kingdom without people knowing she was the Princess."

"Sneaky sneaky little sister!" Patti scolded.

"You have no idea," Akira laughed.

Your name is Zadkiel and it's nine in the morning. Right now you are sitting on a park bench in between Rowan and Almas. Your weapon is wearing a black T-shirt with wings in the design of Celtic knots that he swears up and down was never yours but you know better. You don't care much anyway, it looks cute on him.

Speaking of cute, you look away from the one dozing off on your shoulder, Rowan. Gosh darn. She's paying more attention to the trees above than to you, probably spacing out again, so you can get a good look at her without making eye contact.

The first thing you noticed when she woke you and Al, aside from the fact that she not only broke into Lord Angel's door but also your locked room, was what she was wearing. She seems to have a tendency to go for clothes that either hide her figure completely or make it the first thing someone noticed and apparently she felt like showing off today. She's wearing blue jeans at least but her shirt is a crop top that, if it wasn't for the elastic at the hem, would probably show the band of her bra. It is a cute top though, it's white and poofs kind of like a bubble, or like those dress sleeves. The sleeves are actually like that too, except they're off the shoulder. Her curly hair is blown out and draped over the back of the bench so you can see the wall of silver studs and small loops adorning her ear and cartilage. You noted earlier that the other one matches.

The most surprising thing you saw earlier that she doesn't normally show are her tattoos. She has the blacked in lines of a Rowan tree spread across her back, with the long leaves occasionally shown in between the branches. On her inner left arm sprouting from her wrist is a delicate looking sprig of blue hyacinth, and on the fingers of that hand are thin bands of black. One on each finger, and two on her pinky and ring finger. It's obvious what the first two were gotten for, but it's the one on her hand that you don't understand. You wonder if her mother knows she has these, or the piercings even. You know you've never seen her with them in when you talked on the mirror, and she normally had her hands covered.

You kind of feel terrible for crushing on her. You hardly know the girl.

You lay your head back and close your eyes, the cedar scent of your partner's soul mingling with the pomegranate from the girl on your other side. Rowan's wavelength, unlike Al's, seems oddly distant. It bothers you that you can't tell what she's feeling. She felt different when she was having fun exploring the market earlier but all of a sudden that changed. You don't even know enough about her to know if you should be concerned about this or if these swings happen normally.

Al on the other hand clearly should not have gotten up as early as you did, but he was the one who insisted on joining you. He really does need to sleep more. You probably should have declined the offer to spend the day in the city, but you figured it would be good strategy to know your surroundings.

Suddenly Rowan's wavelength spikes in a way that you can only describe as unsettling and you feel the old wood of the bench creek. You open your eyes and lift your head to look at her and she's sitting up and alert with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" you ask.

"Today." she says in a whispered panic, "It's happening today."


	25. Chapter 25

"It looks kind of cloudy for a picnic now that I think about it…" Maka said sadly as the group walk to the second campus. She and Tsubaki had been working almost all morning on making lunch for everyone to celebrate Crona coming back.

"That's okay! Rain is fun!" Akira said cheerfully, "It makes the plants happy!"

"I hate rain," Liz grumbles, "It's gross and makes my makeup run."

"It wouldn't if you used a sealer after your done putting it on."

"You don't set and seal your makeup?" Tsubaki asks, surprised.

"Yeah, it makes it practically indestructible," Maka adds.

"What? Why did none of you tell me this earlier." Liz looked at her two friends in surprise.

"It's not like you guys talk about makeup that much." Soul grumbles.

"How does Maka know then? You only wear makeup to dances!"

"Tsubaki helped me pick out the right tones for my skin when we went to the mall."

"Hey, why don't we settle down here?" Tsubaki suggests, gesturing to a clearing smaller than the one they had been in for class a few days ago.

Maka spreads out the large blanket and puts the cooler down. Crona sits, grateful that all of their friends wanted them back without any fuss. Akira and Patty wander away in different directions as soon as Liz turns her back. Blackstar challenges Soul to see how high they can each get on the tallest tree on the edge of the clearing.

"Don't go too high or you'll break the branches!" Tsubaki yells.

"I guess it's more of a contest of who weighs less, then," Maka jokes, uncovering the fruit salad.

"Where'd Akira and Patty go?" Liz asks, looking around in a panic.

"Did they wander off?" Tsubaki asked.

"Ugh, probably. Akira's nursemaid payed us a visit this morning and told Patti and I to make sure this doesn't happen."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, Okay, so, You know how Kid had OCD because of his father's madness being of Order?"

"Yeah" Maka and Tsubaki say.

"Well, when they were whole as Elder they still had OCD, but Mavis remembers Death telling his wife that it had gotten pretty severe after he split."

"What's that have to do with Akira though? I tough he said he was a different person from Kid." Maka said, taking a bite of a strawberry

"Wait, who was Elder?" Crona asks.

"Oh, Elder was who Kid and Akira were before their soul parts split."

"Huh."

"Akira and Kid are different people," Liz starts again, "But Mavis said that Elder's other disorder may end up being sever now that they're just Akira the way Elder's OCD got sever when they were just kid."

"What other disorder?"

"It was like… dissociation? No, depersonalization. She said it's from his mom's madness being Eternity, and getting detached from time due to existing for so long or something. Makes sense, Patti and I kept finding him spacing out weirdly, so at least we know what it is now. I don't know what to do though. We got a hang of helping with his OCD but this is going to be completely different. Mavis said that it's not as obvious as OCD is too, so we're going to have to watch his wavelength."

"I'm sure you and Patti will do fine." Crona says, "You're good partners."

Liz smiles.

Soon Patti is back and telling everyone about this really pretty butterfly she followed and Tsubaki calls the boys out of the tree for sandwiches and potato follows Akira's wavelength to find them bent over picking at rocks on the ground.

"What are you doing?" Liz asks.

"Look at how soft these are!" he says instead of answering her question, dumping five round smooth stones into the hands.

"Most people wouldn't call rocks _soft_ but they are smooth. Anyway, we're eating, don't wander off."

"Okay."

Soon everyone is sitting and eating happily, until Maka notices a worried expression on Crona's face as Ragnarock whispers something to them.

"You okay?" she asks her friend.

"Y-yeah," they stutter, "It just feels like there's a weird wavelength somewhere, I was ignoring it earlier. It keeps flickering in and out…"

"Huh," Maka muttered, turning on her soul perception. "I don't feel anything." she says after a few moments. "Tell me when you feel it again and I'll see if I can catch it too, okay?"

"Okay."

Soon all thoughts of the strange wavelength are lost in lunch conversation and card games as the kids celebrate the return of their friend.

The peace only lasts an hour.

The attack starts when Crona grabs Maka's arm in fear, the wavelength they had been feeling fully there and multiple. When Maka starts soul Perception she gasps.

"BlackStar, Akira, Soul Perception. Something's wrong."

"The hell is that?" BlackStar asks, "where is it even-?"

"I don't know, Soul?"

Soul transforms, and the three girls follow suit.

"You mean you can't feel where it's coming from?" Ragnarok asks from his sword form, "some Meister you are."

"Ragnarok stop," Crona mutters, "you know I sense things differently."

"This is one hell of a fucking difference meister."

Crona sighs, and rebalances their stance, eyes shifting nervously around the trees where they can feel the souls coming from.

"Yo Akira, you know what this is?" Soul asks.

"The only example I have isn't close enough to be right, I'm as lost as you guys are." He grumbles, and his weapons are surprised at the extent of his sudden change of mood.

Then, all at once the fight begins. Souls that look like distorted Kishin Eggs materialize fully into people and attack. They all wear black outfits with short capes and wide hoods, faces covered with dull black porcelain masks that have only noses and cut out eyes for features.

Some have knives, polearms, crossbows, artillery. It's hard to tell how many there are with the commotion of the fighting. Akira and the Thompsons take out the ranged fighters hiding in the trees while Maka fights two or three into a line so Crona can use Screech Alpha on more than one enemy. BlackStar has Tsubaki in chain scythe mode and barrels through a couple before getting nicked in the shoulder by someone's blade.

But then they aren't the only ones fighting, and two people, a boy in a dark blue T-shirt with a shotgun and a girl in white with an inky black rapier are fighting beside them. Akira stutters to a halt in shock and nearly ends up with a cleaver to the neck.

"Liz, Patti, if you two wield each other I can wield my sister and we'll have an extra person in our ranks." they yell over the fighting, making eye contact with Rowan as she stabs a non-human figure through the chest.

"Okiedokie!" Patti says with a seriousness that only she can apply to that word as she turns into her human form and catches her sister, shooting a couple of masks point blank a second later. Akira catches two daggers, one white gold, and the other obsidian, and quickly turns to dodge the spear aimed at his back, slicing the shaft upwards so that it breaks before it can reach BlackStar.

"Second Formation!"

The two daggers quickly merge together and elongate into a double sided six foot spear, one blade white, the other black. The acting-meister soon thrusts the white end into the ground and propels himself up and over a lunging mask, bringing a blade-turned foot down to slice through the adversaries neck.

"Where the fuck are these things coming from?!" Ragnarok yells as Crona parries a pole ax away from Maka's blind spot. The clearing is already littered with odd looking souls, but more keep coming.

"Language Ragnarok." Says Crona quietly, slicing through the figure trying to attack his friend.

"You good there Akira?" Zadkiel yells over the gunfire of his partner, a worried glance at the frenzied wavelength the siblings are giving off.

"We're fine!" They yell in unison.

BlackStar gets an arrow through his arm, and Tsubaki screams for him to stop when he tells her to go into fey blade mode and switches both sides of her chain scythe to the hand attached to the uninjured arm.

"Come on Tsubaki I can use that form with one hand!"

She changes form quickly so that he can block a cutlass from cutting into his leg.

Another yell is heard moments later from Liz and Patti, the younger sister clutching her left above the hip, the pink fabric of her shirt showing a growing red stain as she blasts the hell out of the individual who cut her.

Soon after the two sustained injuries a surprisingly powerful wavelength of rage is felt by everyone in the clearing, wafting off of Akira and his sister. Maka, concerned for her friend, zeros in on his soul and, after some focus finds that two wavelengths are trying to fight each other for control of what's going on.

It looks painful, but she can't tell if the blazing anger is from that or him seeing his friends get hurt, or both. Soon she feels a new power, and looks up to see a Lord Death holding an unfamiliar scythe. It's all black like her father, save for an opalescent tooth like design on the blade. The blade positioning reminds her of a halberd in the way that there's the main, large blade, and then a smaller one on the other side, but the blade on the other side seems to almost be like a flattened hook. As soon as Lord Death and the mysterious weapon show up, the masked adversaries seem to be swallowed by their shadows, along with all of the defeated souls floating in the clearing.


	26. Chapter 26

The weapons all turned back to human forms and Death surveyed the injuries. All of the meisters were bleeding from somewhere, but Patti and BlackStar had the worst injuries.

"What was that? And where have you been young lady?!" Rowan's mother demanded, her pine green dress swishing angrily as she stomped towards her children.

"We have no clue what's going on, and I've been here the whole time." Rowan lied.

Memoria huffed and surveyed the ground, soon bending over to pick up three square pieces of paper with red stylized letter M's on the back. When she flipped them over she took a sharp breath, going rigid. Her husband was looming over her shoulder in an instant, an angry expression soon adorning his mask. The papers in Memoria's hands burst into a purple flame, but when they didn't char she resorted to tearing them up and letting them loose to the gusty wind and stormed off.

"I think it would be best if you all went to the dispensary immediately." Lord Death said in his comical voice before following his wife.

"Patti, BlackStar, are you two alright?" Akira asked grimly, walking over to his weapons.

"I'll be fine!" Patti said cheerfully.

"You know I've had worse!"

"That doesn't answer whether or not you are okay." he replied through clenched teeth, more to Patti than his other friend.

"I think the question is more if you're okay man," said Zadkiel, wiping cerise blood off of his forehead and staining his arm, "You're wavelength is so off you have _two_."

"Mavis is pissed as hell at you sis." says Akira, ignoring the comment about his souls.

"Oh please, that's a regular." Rowan said dismissively.

"Yeah, well you'd better take that metal out of your ears and cover your ink unless you want the hour lecture to turn into three. Now come on, we need to get to the dispensary."

Everyone looked at their friend in concern as they walked ahead.

Rowan hung to the back of the group, and with a wave of her hand, made the torn up pieces of paper come back together and re-bind. When she flipped them over her suspicions were confirmed.

The cult and its entity were claiming responsibility in the brutal murders of her sisters.

Birch's scorched body had been dismembered and strung up from a tree with twine. Holly was punctured and drained, buried beneath where her elder sister hung. Willow was found beaten and drowned in a sealed casket, washed up on the bank of the river.

The pictures captured the siblings Rowan never knew in painstaking detail. She stored them in the shadows, and followed everyone else out of the second campus.

"So how's your brother?" Zadkiel asks Rowan, Akira being the only one who left after Patti and BlackStar went into surgery.

"I don't know," she replies monotonously, arms crossed, sitting on the bench next to him outside of the emergency room and staring at the wall in front of the two as if it had personally offended her.

"Are you worried about him?"

"How can I not be worried about a situation that I don't understand?"

"Well, it's not like you're the only one who doesn't understand what's going on. Nothing like this has ever happened before, it's not like anyone would have any experience to-"

Rowan shot up from her seat, startling Zadkiel to a stop and making the others waiting in the hallway stare at the two of them.

"JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!" she screamed, "I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT HOW I'M A FUCKING UNIVERSAL ANOMALY THAT NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH JUST SHUT UP ABOUT IT ALREADY!"

"Mav that's not what I meant-" Zadkiel stammered.

"LIKE _HELL_ THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU MEANT! 'NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE'? DON'T FUCKING SUGAR COAT THINGS. YOU MEAN NOTHING LIKE MY BROTHER AND I HAVE EVER HAPPENED BEFORE AND YOU KNOW IT. OUR DAMN _PARENTS_ DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH US!" The princess's eyes were the color of a violent stormy ocean, tearing up out of rage, her teeth shining like lightening and just as pointed. "THEY'VE HID THE TRUTH ABOUT US OUR ENTIRE LIVES BECAUSE THEY'RE AFRAID OF WHAT THE OTHER TWO ARE GOING TO THINK. ELDER AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT WAS WRONG WITH US UNTIL FIFTY YEARS AGO! I'VE HIDDEN HALF OF THE SHIT I'M CAPABLE OF DOING FROM MY MOTHER BECAUSE I DON'T WANT _HER_ TO BE AFRAID OF _ME_!" She stood there, shaking and breathing quickly, before storming off.

No one followed her.


End file.
